Sweet lift for Finsbury on takeover talk June 1, 2009 CAKE maker Finsbury Foods yesterday confirmed it had received a preliminary bid approach, stirring investors and its share price. But the firm said that talks were in the very early stages and said there was “considerable doubt that an offer will be forthcoming from this party”. The group, which owns the rights to Weight Watchers’ [...]
WPP facing vote on bonus scheme June 1, 2009 WPP could today be the latest FTSE 100 company to feel shareholder backlash against bonuses, as it asks investors to approve a new scheme that could see chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell bank around £60m. Concerns that such a large sum could be paid to a single executive prompted the Association of British Insurers (ABI) [...]
Sterling hits seven month high against the US dollar June 1, 2009 STERLING gained against a broadly falling US dollar yesterday, as share prices rose on expectations for the global economy to stabilise, prompting investors to cautiously shift towards riskier assets. The pound rose to a seven-month high against the dollar, while it also gained against the euro and the yen. The dollar fell broadly, hitting its [...]
Factory order books show signs of life June 1, 2009 THE British manufacturing sector contracted at its slowest pace in a year in May according to the monthly purchasing managers’ index (PMI) published yesterday, fuelling further optimism that an economic recovery could be on its way. The CIPS/Markit index rose for the third month in a row to 45.4 in May, above April’s figure of [...]
Markets lifted by Chinese manufacturing expansion June 1, 2009 NEWS that China’s manufacturing sector expanded in May for the third consecutive month boosted optimism and lifted world markets yesterday. China’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 53.1 from 53.5 in April, but remained above the critical 50 level, which separates expansion from contraction. Investors were relieved that the pace of contraction was slowing [...]
Blanchflower: jobless to rise 100k a month June 1, 2009 BRITISH unemployment will continue to rise this year and next, adding some 100,000 more to jobless numbers a month, former Bank of England monetary policy committee (MPC) member David Blanchflower said yesterday. Blanchflower, who stepped down from the MPC at the end of last month, said the current recession made the economic outlook particularly difficult [...]
F&C adds two heavyweights to its board June 1, 2009 ASSET manager F&C has added a former PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) chairman and a former chief executive of rival Henderson to its board, in a bold reshuffle ahead of its shift to corporate independence. The group, currently being demerged from life insurer Friends Provident, named ex-Henderson chief executive Roger Yates as a non-executive director. He will be [...]
AnaCap vehicle to target financial services firms June 1, 2009 EUROPEAN private equity firm AnaCap has bucked the dim fundraising environment by gathering €575m (£496m) for a fund that will aim to snap up vulnerable UK financial services firms. The group, whose heavyweight investors include Goldman Sachs, Allianz and Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, said the fund is twice the size of its other vehicle, [...]
Hardcore of fund bosses bank on falls June 1, 2009 A DWINDLING number of hardcore high-profile fund managers continue to hoard cash and shelter in defensive equities, in the belief that recent gains on the FTSE 100 are part of a bear market rally – not a recovery. As the FTSE 100 yesterday broke through the 4,500-point barrier, compared to lows around 3,500 just three [...]
B&B suffers on loan losses June 1, 2009 BRADFORD and Bingley will lose up to £700m on mortgage defaults this year and expects an increase in the rate of loan losses, its chief executive Richard Pym said yesterday. Pym said the number of borrowers more than three months behind on their mortgage had grown from the 4.6 per cent figure it announced in [...]