UK firms pay back debts July 29, 2009 BRITISH companies are paying down bank loans at a record rate, using the proceeds from a surge in capital markets fund-raising, Bank of England data revealed yesterday. In the second quarter, British private non-financial companies paid off a net £15bn, including £3.6bn in June alone. They raised £21bn from the debt and equity markets. So [...]
Poor the great losers from our fiscal folly July 29, 2009 HERE is a disturbing fact you won’t have read anywhere else: the poorest families in Britain today pay a greater proportion of their income in tax than the wealthiest. Such a claim may sound crazy but here are the figures: the bottom fifth of earners pay 38.7 of their gross income in total tax, the [...]
Mortgage approvals rise July 29, 2009 MORTGAGE approvals jumped in June to their highest level in more than a year but consumer lending remained very weak, recording the smallest rise on record, according to Bank of England data released yesterday. The Bank of England said that home loan approvals for new house purchase rose to 47,584 from 44,169 in May, which [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 29, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES CATTLES’ NON-EXECS WIN TEPID SUPPORTLong-suffering investors in cattles, whose shares have been suspended since April, protested yesterday against the re-election of two non-executive directors at the subprime lender’s annual meeting. About a tenth of investors voted against the re-election of David Haxby, senior independent director who has been with the board since 1999, [...]
AmEx redeems Tarp warrants July 29, 2009 American Express has paid the US Treasury $340m (£208m) to redeem warrants given to the government as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (Tarp). The credit card firm bought back $3.39bn in preferred shares issued to the government under Tarp last month. It said the cost of buying back warrants to purchase 24.3m shares, [...]
Temasek unveils 17bn loss July 29, 2009 Singapore state investor Temasek revealed yesterday that the value of its portfolio slid by at least $27bn (£16.5bn), or more than a fifth, in the 12 months ending in March. But the sovereign wealth fund, which made an estimated loss of £800m when it sold its stake in Barclays earlier this year, said it will [...]
US economy slows its slide July 29, 2009 THE Federal Reserve said yesterday the pace of the recession has stabilised in most areas of the US, in a report that pointed to protracted job market weakness even as the economy transitions to recovery. Labour markets across the country were “extremely soft,” with little upward pressure on wages, the Fed said in its Beige [...]
Court date looms as UBS and US fail to agree over tax row July 29, 2009 A PROTRACTED legal battle between Swiss bank UBS and the US authorities looks increasingly likely, with the two sides still to reach a settlement over demands that the bank hand over details of 52,000 customers suspected of tax evasion. Lawyers for the Department of Justice (DoJ) said “no agreement has been reached and it’s unclear [...]
BHP Billiton smashes tradition and agrees iron ore spot pricing July 29, 2009 BHP BILLITON yesterday claimed a victory in its campaign to change the way iron ore is priced, as it announced that almost 30 per cent of its sales this year will be determined by prices on the spot market. The world’s largest miner broke over 40 years of industry tradition – where iron ore prices [...]
Lazard profit falls but beats forecasts July 29, 2009 FINANCIAL adviser and asset manager Lazard yesterday reported higher-than-expected second-quarter earnings, helped by strength in its restructuring business, sending its shares higher. But the firm said that profit was lower than a year earlier as its mergers and acquisitions business had not fully recovered in a lacklustre market. Lazard vice chairman Steven Golub said that [...]