JAL files for bankruptcy and begins to restructure January 18, 2010 ASIA’S largest airline by revenues, Japan Airlines, is expected to file for bankruptcy this week as part of a restructuring crafted by a state-backed turnaround fund. Some analysts think a bankruptcy filing would make it easy for Japan Airlines to abandon its deal with AMR, the holding company for American Airlines, in favour of membership [...]
Italian directories publisher Seat joins the long list of corporate bond issuers January 18, 2010 ITALIAN yellow-pages publisher Seat Pagine Gialle yesterday revealed that it will be issuing a €650m (£573m) bond to help it refinance its debts. The group, which publishes ThomsonLocal in the UK, issued a prospectus following a refinancing deal reached last week with its senior creditor banks in an agreement managed by the Royal Bank Of [...]
Swiss Re deal with Buffett lands $1.3bn January 18, 2010 Swiss Re yesterday said it had agreed to transfer a US life reinsurance contract to Warren Buffett for 1.3bn Swiss francs ($1.27bn, £778m), allowing it to reinvest capital more profitably elsewhere. Under the deal, the US investor’s Berkshire Hathaway group will pocket premiums payable under the contract, while taking responsibility for paying up to $1.5bn [...]
Entrepreneur gathering gives views on 2010 January 18, 2010 LAST Thursday, 260 delegates braved the cold to come and hear leading entrepreneurs, politicians and think-tank leaders share their views at the 6th Entrepreneur Country Forum, which had the theme “Politics Not as Usual”. Stephan Shakespeare, co-founder of YouGov, was candid when he said that tough times were the making of his firm – “when [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 18, 2010 QINETIQ Evolution Securities says Qinetiq is the victim of a “vicious squeeze” as robot and armour sales have yet to rise despite other equipment manufactures reaping the benefits of the recent surge in Afghanistan. It predicts restructuring costs under new chief executive Leo Quinn and adopts a “sell” position with a target price of 125p [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 18, 2010 Piper Jaffray The mid-market investment bank has poached Ian Wainwright from Canaccord Adams to join its corporate broking team as a principal. Wainwright has been a managing director at Canaccord since 2007, and was instrumental in building the firm’s life sciences franchise. Prior to that, he was in specialist biotech, medtech and pharma sales at [...]
Myners: Banks could still be hit with US-style levy January 18, 2010 CITY Minister Lord Myners has warned that a US-style levy on banks could still be slapped on the UK. His comments came after Chancellor Alistair Darling had appeared to rule out the move. US president Barack Obama is hitting US banks with a 0.15 per cent charge on liabilities in a bid to recoup at [...]
Taylor Wimpey order book up 28pc January 17, 2010 HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey has entered the new year with a 28 per cent rise in orders for new homes and seen a boost in prices. But the trading update on performance in the 12 months to 31 December saw a drop in the number of homes completed in 2009 compared with the previous year. The [...]
IMF chief warns of double dip recession January 17, 2010 THE head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the global economy could suffer a double dip recession. Dominique Strauss-Kahn said countries should not ditch stimulus packages that have triggered growth through governments’ pumping of money into economies. He warned: “We have to very cautious because this recovery remains very fragile. “Recovery in [...]
Tullow in $1.4bn African oil deal January 17, 2010 TULLOW Oil, the FTSE 100 oil explorer, is close to striking the biggest deal of its 25-year history after exercising a pre-emption right to buy $1.35bn (£830m) worth of Ugandan oil fields from its partner Heritage Oil. Tullow confirmed yesterday it had served notice on Heritage, which had previously agreed to sell the assets to [...]