Gartmore to buy Rensburg fund May 27, 2009 Fund manager Gartmore is to buy rival Rensburg’s Corporate Bond fund, after poaching the vehicle’s respected manager John Anderson in February. Gartmore pounced after Rensburg decided to slim down its business following a strategic review, as it seeks to weather the financial crisis. Joint chief executive of Rensburg Alex Brotherston said the group will now [...]
UBS chief defends salary hike May 27, 2009 The chief executive of UBS, Oswald Grübel, has defended the Swiss bank’s decision to increase the base salaries of its investment bankers. In a leaked memo, Grübel said that high salaries were necessary for the profitability of the company and said the company would stick to its guns, even if it took flak in the [...]
Santander to ditch brands May 27, 2009 SPANISH banking titan Santander brought the curtain down on the Abbey, Alliance & Leicester (A&L) and Bradford & Bingley (B&B) brands yesterday, after a year in which it snapped up some of the UK’s best-known lenders. Santander’s name will hang above some 1,300 branches by the end of the integration process in 2010, or around [...]
More US banks are struggling May 27, 2009 The number of US banks in financial difficulty jumped by 40 per cent in the first quarter, the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said yesterday. The FDIC said 305 banks were still struggling in the period between January and March, up from 252 in the previous quarter. However, bank profits rose substantially, topping $7.6bn [...]
Virgin Media in debt offering May 27, 2009 UK cable operator Virgin Media said last night it would price a $650m (£407.1m) offering of new debt before the end of the week, in a bid to pay off debt due in the next two years. The new offering of senior notes will give the US-listed group more breathing room and builds on its [...]
Arrests in insider dealing probe May 27, 2009 Five men and one woman have been arrested in connection with an investigation into organised insider dealing, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said yesterday. In a joint operation between the FSA and the City of London Police Economic Crime Directorate (ECD), officers raided eight addresses in London and Essex. The round of arrests was the [...]
Shell revamps for Voser era May 27, 2009 OIL giant Shell announced a massive shake up yesterday, as incoming chief executive Peter Voser starts to make his mark on the company. The exploration and production, gas and power, and oil sands unit will be moved into two divisions, one covering North and South America, one covering the rest of the world. Voser, who [...]
Portsmouth Sheikh-up as Dr Al Fahim nears a takeover May 27, 2009 THE Arabic businessman at the centre of last summer’s multi-million pound Manchester City takeover, had an offer to buy Portsmouth accepted last night. Dr Sulaiman Al Fahim was in charge of the Abu Dhabi United Group consortium which took control at Eastlands in September, but is no longer involved with the City owners. Now, after [...]
Braford & Bingley’s bid to defer bond interest could be repeated May 27, 2009 BRADFORD & Bingley (B&B) has said it will not pay interest on £325m of subordinated bonds, fuelling speculation that other nationalised lenders such as Northern Rock might follow suit. The bank said last night that it would not pay interest on three tranches of notes, £150m of floating rate notes due on 30 June, £125m [...]
Margetts: No pay boost for top L&G staff May 27, 2009 LEGAL & General (L&G) chairman Sir Rob Margetts yesterday said no staff at the firm earning over £100,000 received a payrise last year and confirmed all directors waived their bonuses, as he faced shareholders at the group’s annual meeting. He said it “would be inappropriate to make those payments when the company is reducing headcount [...]