GORMAN FOCUSES ON TRUST May 18, 2010 MORGAN STANLEY chief executive James Gorman said yesterday Wall Street must “rebuild trust” with America’s Main Street amid a growing divide between high finance and the rest of the country. Gorman, who became chief executive on 1 January, said Morgan Stanley finds itself in an “extremely fluid” environment in light of ongoing investigations and regulatory [...]
WILL PRUDENTIAL’S PROSPECTUS WIN INVESTORS ROUND TO AIA? May 18, 2010 NIC CLARKE | CHARLES STANLEY “There are clear merits in doing the deal. It would be a truly transformational deal with the enlarged group generating around 60 per cent of its profit in Asia and would give it the number one market share in the region.” PAUL MUMFORD | CAVENDISH ASSET MANAGEMENT “We have tremendous [...]
Pru reveals risks and hopes May 18, 2010 PRUDENTIAL exposed the risks and upsides of its $35.5bn (£24bn) move on AIG’s Asian network in more detail as its prospectus finally emerged yesterday. The 936-page document, which was pored over by analysts and investors, re-stated Prudential’s punchy promise to more than double its new business profit from the Far East by 2013 while returning [...]
Top fund man joins probe on banking fees May 18, 2010 WILLIAM Claxton-Smith, the well-known corporate governance expert, has been brought in to help lead an inquiry into the fees charged by investment banks for rights issues. Claxton-Smith, who has previously held senior roles at Insight Investment and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, will work on the investigation launched by the Institutional Shareholders’ Committee (ISC) this week. [...]
Court decision on BA’s strike plan hit by delay May 18, 2010 BRITISH Airways (BA) passengers are still in the dark over the continuing threat of a cabin crew strike after the Court of Appeal delayed making a decision on Unite’s challenge of Monday’s decision. Unite launched the appeal yesterday morning after the High Court brandished the possible crew strike unlawful on the grounds that the union [...]
Regus frets over future May 18, 2010 SHARES in the temporary office accomodation group Regus fell by nearly 17 per cent to 94p yesterday as chairman John Matthews revealed he was concerned about the state of the UK market. Matthews told shareholders at the group’s annual meeting: “The UK remains our most difficult region and the early signs of improvement seen in [...]
City regulator banishes Sir Fred’s RBS sidekick May 18, 2010 SIR Fred Goodwin’s former right hand man at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) faces a blanket ban on full-time employment in the City for the rest of his career, under a ruling imposed yesterday by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The regulator’s draconian verdict came after a year-long investigation into the role played by [...]
RPI inflation sees sharpest jump since ‘91 May 18, 2010 NEW chancellor George Osborne yesterday called on the Bank of England to accelerate plans to reintroduce house prices into the benchmark rate of inflation, after the housing-linked index in April recorded its biggest monthly increase in two decades. The consumer price index (CPI) – the official inflation measure which does not currently take housing into [...]
US housing builds momentum but could still stall May 18, 2010 US housing starts touched a one year to 18-month high in April, but a drop in permits to a six-month low suggested the housing market recovery will remain slow. The number of private houses on which building had started rose 5.8 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 672,000 units, the Commerce Department [...]
Greece receives EU funds but faces huge task ahead May 18, 2010 GREECE received a €14.5bn (£12.4bn) loan from the European Union yesterday and can now repay its immediate debt, but still faces a mammoth task to claw its way out of recession. Concerns that other EU countries such as Portugal and Spain could follow Greece and need aid from the bloc have hit the euro, while [...]