ONE LETS THE TRAIN TAKE THE STRAIN December 17, 2009 THE Queen yesterday caused a flurry of excitement when she travelled on an ordinary train from King’s Cross to Norfolk. She travelled first class on a First Capital Connect train before being met by a Range Rover which drove her to Sandringham, her Norfolk estate.
Basel group calls for stricter rules December 17, 2009 TOUGHER conditions for banks could be on the cards after the Basel Committee of central bankers called for stricter rules to protect depositors and shareholders from loss. The influential global finance regulatory group said yesterday that banks would have to store more funds or look to investors for fresh capital in as little as three [...]
Lehman sells the kitchen sink December 17, 2009 CONTENTS from the City offices of collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers have been auctioned off – including the kitchen sink. The online auction, organised by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the bank’s administrator, was packed with items from the firm’s office in Bank and a conference facility in Broad Street. Lehman Brothers went into administration in September last year [...]
Hopes of a deal fade at Copenhagen December 17, 2009 PRIME Minister Gordon Brown yesterday moved to dampen expectations of the outcome of the Copenhagen climate conference, as China indicated a detailed agreement would be out of the question. Brown warned world leaders that future generations would blame them for risking the survival of the human race if they failed to reach an accord this [...]
Hotel owner MWB to raise fresh funds to prevent breach of banking covenant December 17, 2009 MWB, THE property investment group which owns the Malmaison and Hotel du Vin hotel chains, yesterday announced plans to raise £27.5m via a share placing to mitigate the impact of the recession on its empire. The group said it would issue 91.7m new shares in the placing at a price of 30p per share – [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK THE COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE WILL MAKE AN IMPACT? December 17, 2009 ANGUS MACLENNAN | ANGMAC LIMITED “I think that because there are massive issues at stake in Copenhagen, it’s important that the nations involved seize the opportunity to accomplish something. I fear that because there are so many different countries in talks, their vested national interests may get in the way of the importance of working [...]
NEWS | IN BRIEF December 17, 2009 Arriva is optimistic for 2010 The operator of the CrossCountry rail franchise has said that there had been a “substantial improvement” in passenger revenues in recent weeks. In a trading update, Arriva reported a 2.1 per cent rise in CrossCountry revenues for the year to date, accelerating to a gain of 6.1 per cent over [...]
M&B opens door to rebel appointments December 17, 2009 PUB and restaurant operator Mitchells & Butlers has invited the four candidates put forward to join its board by rebel shareholder Joe Lewis to meet with headhunters and its nomination committee. The operator of All Bar One and Harvester yesterday said the meetings would enable it to formulate its recommendations as to how shareholders should [...]
ECB to spend €1bn on new HQ December 17, 2009 The European Central Bank (ECB) yesterday gave itself the go-ahead to build a new €1bn (£890m), 48-storey HQ, giving it a permanent home for the first time and drawing a line under years of delays and setbacks. The proposed design in Frankfurt’s rundown east end has two twisted interlocking towers built round the city’s former [...]
Toronto Dominion fined £7m for scrutiny failure December 17, 2009 THE Financial Services Authority (FSA) yesterday fined Canada’s Toronto Dominion Bank £7m, the regulator’s fourth-biggest penalty ever, for failing to scrutinise the prices used by its traders. The FSA, which has handed out a record £27.8m in penalties for fraud, market abuse and inadequate controls this year, said the fine reflected Toronto Dominion’s failure to [...]