Container ship firm to get lifeline August 11, 2009 THE owners of Hapag-Lloyd are preparing to throw the German container shipping company a financial lifeline. Shareholder consortium Albert Ballin and German tourism group TUI Hapag’s former parent, are gearing up to provide it with another €420m (£360m) after giving €330m in July. It is still undecided whether TUI will inject further cash or take [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 11, 2009 VODAFONENomura said that Vodafone’s European assets declined 2.7 per cent faster than its main rivals in the June quarter and the underperformance has increased over the past year. The broker is concerned that its forecasts assume a sudden return to stable revenue share next calendar year. It fears this is too optimistic and retains its [...]
AIRSPACE INQUIRY August 11, 2009 A US safety board is set to examine whether New York airspace regulations need tightening after a small plane collided with a sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River last week, killing nine people. The National Transportation Safety Board is “going to be looking at the operations in this airspace,” Debbie Hersman, the board’s chairman, said. [...]
HSBC returns lost 8.55m August 11, 2009 HSBC has reunited more than 5,000 customers with £8.55m in lost deposits since September last year, the bank said yesterday. The bank launched the campaign in 2008 in a bid to return more than £38.8m in 40,000 accounts that had lain untouched for 15 years. Under government regulations coming into force later this year, money [...]
Alpha denies capital increase August 11, 2009 Alpha Bank, Greece’s third-largest lender, has denied that it is planning an imminent increase of its share capital. The bank said it was “constantly monitoring economic developments”, but said in a stock exchange filing that reports of a capital-raising were “totally inaccurate”. Chairman Yannis Costopoulos told shareholders in June that the bank was not planning [...]
Bank’s forecast to be very downbeat August 11, 2009 THREADNEEDLE STREET’S latest growth and inflation forecasts published today are widely expected to be downbeat about the prospects for the UK economy, pointing to a weak recovery and the potential for further expansion of quantitative easing (QE). In light of last week’s monetary policy decision and worse-than-expected second quarter GDP data, economists expect the Bank [...]
UK signs deal with Liechtenstein over tax data disclosure August 11, 2009 THE UK has signed a landmark deal with Liechtenstein to aid the recovery of tax revenues from British people with bank accounts in the tiny mountainous principality. HM Revenue and Customs reached an agreement with the Liechtenstein authorities to encourage 5,000 Britons to hand over data on an estimated £3bn stashed in secret accounts. UK [...]
Greenhill and Evercore bosses raise $300m by flogging company shares August 11, 2009 BOSSES at investment banks Greenhill and Evercore Partners have taken advantage of rocketing markets by selling off tranches of their company stock, raising $300m (£182m) in total. The top four staff at Greenhill have raised $142m and the top three staff at Evercore have raised $18.3m, according to filings. Goldman Sachs benefited after bookrunning both [...]
Gunning for the glorious grouse August 11, 2009 THE City can hardly be short of people who consider themselves pretty crack shots when it comes to hitting clay pigeons or scoring the odd pheasant on a hospitality jaunt to the countryside. But true game shooting aficionados will say that you really can’t claim expertise until you’ve mastered the art of downing the fastest [...]
CITY VIEWS: IS THE GOVERNMENT RIGHT TO CLAMP DOWN ON TAX HAVENS? August 11, 2009 RICARDO PINEIRO ESPIRITO SANTO“The people who have access to these accounts are very wealthy, and to allow them to evade taxes is not fair to those paying tax in the UK. Also, it’s a messy time for the government with the public debt, so they are trying to get their hands on all the funds [...]