Northern Rock break-up is good for competition November 1, 2009 Leaving the debate over who should be the first “President of the EU” aside, the EU Commission’s recent decision to allow the break-up of Northern Rock into separate “good” and “bad” banks was a major step forward to restoring healthy competition in the banking sector. Restructuring Northern Rock and selling off its viable parts will [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 1, 2009 GrosvenorThe property group’s Britain and Ireland business has appointed Heather Rabbatts as a non-executive director.Rabbatts is also currently a non-executive at Crossrail, Shed Media and Millwall Holdings, where she was also previously chief executive. She has previously held positions as a non-executive at the Bank of England, a trustee of the British Council and governor [...]
Bank closures hit 17-year high as US regulator shuts down another nine November 1, 2009 REGULATORS closed nine more American banks, all owned by the same holding company, on Friday. A month ago the banks had combined assets of $19.4bn (£11.7bn) and deposits of $15.4bn, says the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The banks were all subsidiaries of FBOP, a holding company based in a suburb of Chicago. There have [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 1, 2009 PARTYGAMINGKBC Peel Hunt upgraded Partygaming to “buy”, noting that the shares have fallen back over 20 per cent over the past two weeks, a technical situation created by the recent placing. But the broker said that the outlook for the group has not deteriorated – quite the opposite as recent developments in Germany could prove [...]
A supersonic joyride in a bullet-holed combat plane November 1, 2009 SOARING at almost 10,000 feet above East Anglia in a jet aircraft, the view of the coast and out to sea never fails to amaze and delight. Far below, villages and towns are just tiny specks, while cities form darker smudges on the ancient rural landscape. Rolling the jet onto its back and pulling back [...]
Sky’s rivals want to punish it for being a success October 29, 2009 BACK in 1997, Japanese carmaker Toyota took a gamble and spent $1bn (£603m) developing the Prius, its hybrid fuel vehicle. At the time, the panic over global warming had yet to develop and there was little call for a mass-market green car. In its first year of production, it sold just 300 units. Now the [...]
CBRE profits back in black after losses October 29, 2009 CB Richard Ellis, the world’s biggest property management firm, yesterday missed analyst forecasts for its third quarter results but posted a return to profit. The group – which has worked on the City’s biggest property deals including Macquarie’s move to Drapers Gardens and Nomura’s return to the Thameside Watermark Place – posted a 69 per [...]
NINTENDO’S Wii LOSES GROUND October 29, 2009 NINTENDO reported a 52 per cent slide in quarterly operating profit to 64bn yen (£422m) yesterday and slashed its full-year earnings forecast, as its Wii console lost ground to rival consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo cut its operating profit forecast for the year to March 2010 by a quarter to 370bn yen, ending a [...]
Go-Ahead overtakes forecasts October 29, 2009 Transport group Go Ahead said yesterday that it had seen growth slightly ahead of expectations in its bus and aviation operations over the first quarter, and that rail operations were continuing to trade in line with forecasts. The largest bus operator in London said first-quarter revenue growth was slightly ahead of its expectations as passenger [...]
IATA says air travel is cruising October 29, 2009 The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced yesterday that international air passenger demand remained unchanged with a growth of 0.3 per cent in the year ending 30 September. But demand for international cargo has taken a nose-dive of over five per cent over the same period, as passenger demand fell, the cost of oil rose [...]