Lloyd’s profits up 39pc amid bond rebound September 24, 2009 LLOYD’S of London, the City’s 321-year old insurance market, yesterday unveiled bumper first-half profits after a recovery in corporate bond markets helped boost returns on its investment portfolio. Chief executive Richard Ward said the market had booked profits of £1.32bn during the first six months of the year – a 39 per cent rise on [...]
Sandler joins Pearl as chair September 24, 2009 PEARL, the insurer founded by pubs-to-pizza entrepreneur Hugh Osmond, has confirmed Northern Rock head Ron Sandler is joining as chairman. The group has taken on Sandler ahead of its planned secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange in the fourth quarter. Sandler was put in charge of failed mortgage lender Northern Rock after it became [...]
Ex-Deutsche Bank executive claims boss knew of spying September 24, 2009 DEUTSCHE BANK’S former head of investors, Wolfram Schmitt, claimed yesterday that workers around him were aware “from the beginning” of a spying scandal over which he was fired. The mid-level executive’s lawyer claims the legal department of the bank and a high level communications executive were aware of a plan concocted to discover more about [...]
QUEEN STREET SNAPPED UP September 24, 2009 GREAT Portland Estates, headed by chief executive Toby Courtauld, bought 90 Queen Street for £45.8m yesterday, in a sign that the once-ailing City office market is on the up. The buy shows that the market may be turning after two years of decline. The building covers 68,400 sq ft and was built in 1996.
ECB: Banks should hold extra capital September 24, 2009 BANKS should be required to hold higher levels of capital to avoid the need for government bailouts and banks that are seen as too big to fail should be more heavily supervised, some of Europe’s central bankers said yesterday. Ewald Nowotny, a member of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) governing council, said that if banks [...]
American unemployment easing but August home sales worse than hoped September 24, 2009 FEWER Americans filed new claims for jobless benefits last week compared to the previous week, but sales of previously owned homes in the US unexpectedly fell in August, disappointing both analysts and the markets yesterday and indicating that the recovery will be slow. Figures from the US Labor department showed yesterday that new claims for [...]
Wharf raises 1bn to save it from brink September 24, 2009 SONGBIRD Estates, the majority owner of Canary Wharf, yesterday announced a £1.03bn rescue fundraising – the biggest ever in UK real estate history. The group will use the majority of the cash raised to pay down its £800m senior loan with Citi, which was due to expire next year. Without the fundraising, Songbird would have [...]
Rolet plans to take LSE on the offensive September 24, 2009 THE LONDON Stock Exchange’s new chief executive Xavier Rolet yesterday said that he would consider acquisitions as part of an aggressive push to regain market share. Rolet, who was facing analysts for the first time since taking over the role in May, said that the LSE intended to be “offensive, not defensive” in the fight [...]
3i Group asset sales fail to show signs of improvement September 24, 2009 LISTED private equity giant 3i Group yesterday said the recent rallies in stock markets have not fed through to gains on its assets, in a downbeat trading statement. “Despite the recent strong performance of equity markets, the economic outlook is still fragile and private equity and mergers and acquisition markets remain subdued,” said chief executive [...]
Hearing into ratings firms is pushed back September 24, 2009 A ROW between rival politicians has led to the postponement of a critical hearing into the behaviour of US ratings agencies in the run-up to the recent banking crisis. “Some information has come to light which not all members of the committee have seen,” a spokesman for the top Republican on the committee told City [...]