Centrica wants more protection January 24, 2010 Centrica chairman Roger Carr is urging the government to consider protection for the owner of British Gas from foreign predators, The Mail on Sunday said. Carr was quoted, saying: “I’m going to tell them (the government) that if they don’t decide that this (Centrica) is a strategic asset then there is the possibility of the [...]
KSF administrator mulls sale January 24, 2010 The administrator to Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander (KSF), the British division of Kaupthing, the Icelandic bank that collapsed in 2008, is considering selling what is left of the bank’s operations. “The administrators objective is to realise KSF’s business and assets for the benefit of the creditors and therefore they review the range of options available [...]
Davos will see bankers fight Obama plans January 24, 2010 THE slopes of Davos will be the unlikely setting for the start of a fightback against the draconian measures being touted by the White House. Bankers from the world’s most powerful financial institutions will begin the mammoth task of lobbying regulators against Barack Obama’s anti-bank legislation at the World Economic Forum, which kicks off on [...]
Citi resume Haiti operations January 24, 2010 Citigroup has resumed operations in Haiti but has relocated operations after the massive earthquake on 12 January damaged its main building and killed five employees. Citi, which has been in Haiti since 1971, said it will serve corporate customers out of the ScotiaBank Building in Petion-Ville. The company said its main building in Port-au-Prince had [...]
Infineon’s Wucherer confident January 24, 2010 German electronic chipmaker Infineon’s director Klaus Wucherer does not expect UK pension fund Hermes will be able to stop his election as chairman of the supervisory board. He said: “I anticipate the proposal of the supervisory board to elect me will be accepted.” Supported by several other investment funds, Hermes is campaigning for ZF Friedrichshafen [...]
Tube Lines’ legal bid fails January 24, 2010 The company responsible for upgrading the Jubilee and Northern lines has failed in a bid to extract an extra £327m from London Underground. An independent adjudication “dismissed in its entirety” a claim by Tube Lines that the London Underground was in breach of its PPP contract. The ruling, by an independent QC, confirmed London Underground’s [...]
Betfair hires banks to plan autumn float January 24, 2010 ONLINE gambling exchange Betfair is understood to have appointed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to advise on a £1.5bn flotation. The company, which is backed by Japanese lender Softbank, is thought to be examining an autumn listing which would potentially net co-founders Ed Wray and Andrew Black hundreds of millions of pounds. The news will [...]
Share sale will mean Google’s co-founders lose majority vote January 24, 2010 LARRY Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of the web giant Google, are to sell 10m of their shares in the company to raise around $5.5bn (£3.4bn). The pair will lose majority control of the business they established while still students at Stanford University. Their 59 per cent voting rights will be diluted to 48 per [...]
Soaring London fraud rate tops a bumper decade for criminals January 24, 2010 A record £1.3bn of fraud committed in 2009 highlights a surge in the level of the crime during the 2000s when 1,750 cases were registered. It meant fraudsters netted more than £7bn of ill-gotten gains in a decade which saw the ascent of high profile “super-cases” involving billions of dollars and notorious individuals such as [...]
Blackstone on UK bank trail January 24, 2010 AMERICAN investment group Blackstone is examining the possibility of entering the UK banking market, its chief executive Stephen Schwarzman said yesterday. Last week sources familiar with the matter said that Blackstone, one of the world’s leading buyout firms, had applied for a British banking licence and was working alongside fund manager Cambridge Place on a [...]