Cadbury to reject Kraft next week December 7, 2009 CADBURY yesterday issued a blunt statement saying it would make a formal response to Kraft’s hostile bid next week, alongside its end of year trading figures. Due to US securities laws “Cadbury is prohibited from publishing any further information, or making any further statement, until it has issued its formal response,” the group said. The [...]
Commercial property values surge again December 7, 2009 BRITISH commercial property values in November made their biggest monthly gain since records began nine years ago, rising 2.7 per cent and marking the fifth consecutive monthly increase, the latest report from consultants CB Richard Ellis’ (CBRE) Monthly Index found. Values have been rising since July when they were down 44 per cent from the [...]
Warning for energy firms December 7, 2009 ENERGY FIRMS were yesterday cautioned by the energy watchdog against using investment plans as “a shameful excuse to overcharge consumers” . Ofgem’s quarterly price report showed that a slump in energy wholesale prices had pushed up supplier’s margins to their highest in five years. The watchdog said the companies had made an average of £210 [...]
EPA grabs new powers December 7, 2009 THE Environmental Protection Agency yesterday cleared the way for regulation of greenhouse gases without new laws passed by Congress, reflecting President Barack Obama’s commitment to act on climate change at the Copenhagen summit. The EPA ruling that greenhouse gases endanger human health, widely expected after it issued a preliminary finding earlier this year, will allow [...]
Lufthansa boss heads for UBS December 7, 2009 UBS yesterday nominated Wolfgang Mayrhuber, the chief executive of airline Deutsche Lufthansa, for election to its board of directors. Sixty-two-year-old Mayrhuber “brings with him strategic as well as operational expertise from his various activities on supervisory boards,” UBS chairman Kaspar Villiger said. UBS will replace Sergio Marchionne and Peter Voser, who say they won’t stand [...]
Skipton sells its majority stake December 7, 2009 Skipton Building Society has sold its majority stake in Callcredit to British-based private equity firm Vitruvian, ending months of speculation over the future of a growing player in the UK credit information market. Callcredit, which competes with US group Equifax and Experian in Britain, was put on the block earlier this year after a strategic [...]
Obama prepares to slash costs of its taxpayer bailout December 7, 2009 US PRESIDENT Barack Obama is set to slash the long-term cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (Tarp) by $200bn (£164bn), and will use the savings to create jobs. The White House will unveil its latest official projection this week, slashing the eventual cost of Tarp to $141bn. It will propose using the extra funds [...]
Citi and US spilt on Tarp December 7, 2009 Citigroup and the US government disagree over how much the bank should raise to repay taxpayers and talks may not finish for weeks or even months, people briefed on the matter said yesterday. The bank and the United States have to resolve questions including how the government would shed its roughly 7.7bn shares in the [...]
CITY SLAMS PLANS FOR WINDFALL TAX December 7, 2009 THELABOUR government is facing an increasingly furious City backlash over plans to slap a punishing windfall tax on bank bonuses, with senior figures warning that the policy could prove the last straw for the UK’s ability to retain senior banking talent. Chancellor Alistair Darling is expected to unveil the tax bombshell at tomorrow’s Pre-Budget Report [...]
Darling backs hedge funds December 7, 2009 CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling yesterday vowed to fight EU plans to clamp down on the hedge fund and private equity industries, warning that excessive red tape could push top talent out of Europe. He told an audience of senior figures from the financial industry: “Hedge funds have had a pretty bad press, and they were in [...]