Japanese banks agree merger July 1, 2009 Loss-making Japanese banks Shinsei and Aozora have struck a merger deal that will create the country’s sixth-largest bank. The combination will create a lender, with assets of around 18 trillion yen (£110bn). Shinsei will take a 58 per cent stake in the new bank, although ownership will be split equally once Aozora’s preferred shares are [...]
Hypo to suffer heavy losses July 1, 2009 Hypo Real Estate (HRE), the German state-owned lender, is set to lose more than €2bn (£1.7bn) over the next 18 months, sources said yesterday. The specialist property lender said last week that it expected to fall to a loss of “at least hundreds of millions of euros” in the second quarter, adding that it was [...]
Rock cleared to write loans July 1, 2009 NORTHERN Rock has been cleared by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to keep lending, despite breaching its minimum capital requirements. The FSA had already granted the nationalised mortgage lender a waiver to write new mortgages despite its low levels of capital, permitting the bank to include tier two capital – a riskier type of cash [...]
US June car sales slide again but slump starts to stabilise July 1, 2009 US car sales tumbled in June as the economy remained a deep concern for consumers, but Ford posted far better results than other large carmakers and shot ahead of Detroit rivals passing through federally sponsored bankruptcies. Carmakers said the results pointed to more stability for the economy, but fell short of marking a turnaround for [...]
Land Securities sells its Portman House office to Libyan investor July 1, 2009 PROPERTY giant Land Securities said yesterday it has sold its Portman House retail and office building on Oxford Street to a Libyan state-backed investor for £155m. The multi-let building in the heart of the West End shopping district has been bought by Kinloss Property, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Libyan Foreign Investment Company. The [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 1, 2009 CRANSWICKKBC peel Hunt say that Cranswick’s success story this year is “more than just a BBQ boost” – although the hot weather has provided a boost to the sale of sausages – but also because of new business and the consumer switchover to beef and lamb products. After meeting the firm for an update, the [...]
Hiring spree gives a boost to Evolution July 1, 2009 INVESTMENT banking group Evolution said yesterday it is performing well despite the economic turmoil, with the expansion of its institutional equities business continuing apace and strong progress in its other divisions. Evolution, which poached a team of 45 staff from Dresdner Kleinwort’s securities business last month, said the new hires had been integrated successfully. It [...]
Hutchings makes Lupus exit July 1, 2009 THE entrepreneur Greg Hutchings yesterday stood down from his executive chairman role at Lupus Capital, the group he founded in 2004 to invest in building materials and construction-related businesses, as it renegotiated its banking facilities. Lupus has for some months been struggling because of its exposure to the moribund housing market and has been weighed [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 1, 2009 MorseThe IT services and technology company has poached Guy Millward as group finance director from Kewill, where he also held the position of finance director. He originally qualified as a chartered accountant with Ernst and Young. Morse also said yesterday that Kevin Loosemore will return to his original role as non-executive chairman. He will also [...]
SLUMDOG MILLIONS FOR CINEWORLD July 1, 2009 CINEWORLD, the cinema chain, said yesterday it saw healthy trading in the first six months of the year with revenues up 16.5 per cent on the back of a string of blockbusters, including runaway success Slumdog Millionaire, which grossed over £31m in the UK and Ireland. The firm said the rest of the year looks [...]