Germany sells 10-year bonds with negative yields for first time since 2016 March 27, 2019 The German government sold 10-year bonds with a negative yield for the first time since 2016 today, as sovereign debt rallies amid global economic gloom. Read more: Draghi says ECB ready to halt rates rises as Eurozone economy struggles The German Finance Agency said the government sold €2.4bn (£2bn) of “bunds” with 10-year maturities with an average [...]
Most acquisitions and divestments don’t maximise value – even when some dealmakers think they do March 27, 2019 | City Talk Most acquisitions and divestments don’t maximise value – even when some dealmakers think they do. But acquirers who prioritise value creation at the onset outperform peers by as much as 14 per cent. Cass Business School provided the market analysis for a PwC and Mergermarket study of 600 global senior corporate executives which found that [...]
Draghi says ECB ready to halt rates rises as Eurozone economy struggles March 27, 2019 Mario Draghi has said that the European Central Bank “will adopt all the monetary policy actions that are necessary” to boost the Eurozone economy should it continue to struggle, including further delaying planned interest rate hikes. Speaking in Frankfurt, Germany, the ECB boss also said that although he thought “growth will gradually return”, the “risks remain tilted [...]
London-listed Goals Soccer Centre suspends trading due to historical accounting errors March 27, 2019 London-listed football pitch operator Goals Soccer Centres has suspended trading in its shares following a “substantial misdeclaration of VAT” totalling approximately £12m. In a statement released this morning, the company – which counts Sports Direct as its biggest shareholders – said that “historical accounting errors” meant it could not be clear on its exact financial position, [...]
Thames Water unveils £1bn tech investment in bid to boost efficiency March 26, 2019 Thames Water has unveiled plans to invest £1bn in new technology for its water and waste operations in a bid to boost efficiency by 20 per cent. The investment, which will be rolled out over the next six years, will help boost the utility company’s data management for a range of issues such as fixing [...]
Prosecutors freeze £580m in Vale assets to pay back evacuated locals in Barao de Cocais March 26, 2019 Prosecutors in Brazil have frozen millions of pounds of Vale's assets to ensure it compensates residents forced to flee a dam on the verge of collapse. Authorities froze 2.95bn Brazilian reais (£576m) after families were evacuated from the path of a mining waste dam in Barao de Cocais, company filings show. Read more: Another Vale [...]
Ranked: The best-performing assets of 2019 so far March 26, 2019 US equities have been the best-performing investment in 2019 so far, with UK and global equities close behind, a new list has revealed. Government bonds have been the worst-performing asset class so far, losing four per cent of their value, despite being the best-performing in 2018. Inflation-linked and corporate bonds also gave a negative return according to a [...]
Apple’s big ecosystem play March 26, 2019 | City Talk Doubts and unanswered questions aplenty following last night’s glitzy event, but make no mistake this was another big step in the pivot towards making Apple more of a services business. You would call this an ecosystem play, with new services designed to strengthen the bonds between consumers and the brand. Services revenues have soared lately [...]
Negative outlook from exporters fails to move German stocks March 26, 2019 German export expectations weakened considerably in March compared to February, dropping to their lowest figure since October 2012, according to one of the country’s leading think tanks. Export expectations among manufacturers in the automotive and metals industries have in particular weakened, and declines in exports are expected, survey results published by the Ifo Institute showed [...]
Plumbing and heating supplier Ferguson’s share price dives after profit warning March 26, 2019 Shares in FTSE 100 plumbing and heating products supplier Ferguson fell nine per cent this morning after it issued a profit warning for 2019. The figures The company's results today revealed a rise in profits before tax of $676m (£513m) before exceptional items for the half year to 31 January, up from $644m for the same [...]