BBVA offers staff five years off June 2, 2009 Spanish bank BBVA is offering staff up to five years off in a bid to cut costs.The bank hopes some of its 29,954 workers will agree to stay home for five years, while banking nearly a third of their usual salary. They would then have a guaranteed job to return to. Other alternatives are a [...]
West loses global dominance June 2, 2009 The Western world will generate less than half of global economic output this year, as China and other emerging nations grab a greater share amid the recession. The US, Canada and Europe will make up 49.4 per cent of the global economy this year, the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) said.
Pearl gets 500m injection June 2, 2009 Life assurer Pearl Group has reached a deal to cut its £3bn debt mountain and receive a £500m capital injection from acquisitions firm Liberty. The firm could announce as early as today that it has entered a period of exclusivity which will see it take a 60 per cent stake in Pearl.
MStanley in race to repay TARP funding June 2, 2009 MORGAN Stanley became the latest Wall Street bank to raise capital in an effort to meet the US government’s criteria for paying back state rescue funds yesterday, announcing that it plans to sell common stock worth $2.2bn (£1.3bn). Ten US banks were told to raise new capital earlier this year, after stress testing by regulators [...]
Citigroup to end payouts to its departed executives June 2, 2009 CITIGROUP is to halt the severance payments it makes to departed executives, including its former head of investment banking Michael Klein. Senior figures at the Wall Street bank were promised severance packages paid in cash instalments when they parted company with Citigroup last year, including $42m (£25.3m) in cash and stock to be paid to [...]
CITY’S GOT TALENT: ON THE HUNT FOR HOTTIES June 1, 2009 ISN’T it about time we started to lighten up and have a bit of fun, now that the sun has got his hat on after months of credit crunch doom and winter gloom? In that spirit, The Capitalist is proud to present a celebration of the more, erm, fickle delights of the world of business [...]
CITY EYE June 1, 2009 SHADOWY figures gaze out at the vista over the river to St Paul’s Cathedral from the restaurant at the Tate Modern, on a day when temperatures in the capital reached a scorching 27 degrees Celsius.
Life’s a Picnic June 1, 2009 WITH summer looking likely to pull through for us this year, numerous picnics and hours spent in parks and gardens lie in wait. If you yearn for something more than grass stains on your bum and swigging bubbly out of the bottle, look no further. Here are some ways to make your picnicking, lounging experience [...]
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) [...]