Greece slams IMF: Yanis Varoufakis hits out at creditors for deal stalemate May 26, 2015 Greece's firebrand finance minister yesterday blasted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for playing hardball in negotiations, as fears the country will default on its debt sent up the interest rate on its government bonds. “It’s about time the institutions, in particular the IMF, get their act together, and come to an agreement with us,” [...]
ING cuts stake in investment firm NN in line with 2008 bailout deal May 26, 2015 Dutch banking giant ING last night cut its stake in NN, an insurance and investment management company. ING has agreed to sell 45m shares at €24.46 per share, making the sale worth €1.1bn (£780m). The deal slashes ING’s stake in NN from 54.8 per cent to 42.4 per cent. NN said it would purchase 5.9m shares, valued at [...]
Bank of England offical Martin Taylor: Regulation will not drive big lenders out of the UK May 26, 2015 The Bank of England will not back down on tough regulation, top official and ex-Barclays boss Martin Taylor said in a speech published yesterday, dismissing threats from banks like HSBC that they could leave the UK for more welcoming shores. Some in the industry have started to argue that banks are now safe, and [...]
Liberty’s John Malone nets his prey with Time Warner and Bright House Networks takeover blitz May 26, 2015 John Malone's Liberty empire owns scores of media assets around the globe, including Virgin Media in the UK Cable kingpin John Malone ended his long running pursuit of Time Warner Cable (TWC) yesterday by engineering a $90bn (£59bn) takeover blitz to create the US’s second biggest cable operator. Charter Communications, a vehicle of Malone’s [...]
Spreadbetter Plus500 bounces higher ahead of crunch shareholder meeting May 26, 2015 Crisis-hit spreadbetter Plus500 won the backing of top shareholder Odey Asset Management yesterday, ahead of a crunch meeting of shareholders today in London. An Odey fund run by James Hanbury added another tranche of shares to its holdings, taking the company’s ownership of the firm past 19 per cent, amid a broad-based rally in [...]
IMF tells China to let currency trade freely May 26, 2015 China’s government is being urged to liberalise more of its economy, and let markets operate more freely in its finance sectors. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday urged the authorities to let its currency, the renminbi, trade freely, and asked the government to target a free-floating exchange rate in the next two to three years. [...]
Boohoo’s finance chief Neil Catto granted options over 1.6m shares May 26, 2015 Boohoo’s finance chief Neil Catto was yesterday granted 1.6m share options worth £400,000 after his previous options effectively went under water following a slump in the online retailer’s share price. Catto, who steered the company through its float in March last year, was rewarded at the time with options over 2m shares. These would have [...]
Twitter in discussions to buy news curating app Flipboard May 26, 2015 Social media giant Twitter is in talks with Flipboard, to buy the media curation mobile app. Reports from Silicon Valley indicate that the rumoured deal could be worth $1bn (£649m). Flipboard allows users to build a personalised collection of news and other media content that they access on a tablet or mobile device. It has [...]
Charter Communications confirms $55bn takeover of Time Warner Cable May 26, 2015 Charter Communications has finalised its $55bn (£36bn) takeover of Time Warner Cable. The cable mega-deal, which valued Time Warner Cable at $78.7bn, will create the second-largest cable and broadcasting company in the US behind industry leader Comcast. Backed by billionaire media investor John Malone, Charter has beaten Comcast to the cable business with a superior [...]
Grexit: Euro falls as markets take a battering on Greek default fears May 26, 2015 The euro tumbled to a one-month low against the dollar this morning with investors unable to shake-off concerns surrounding Greece's ability to meet its upcoming loan repayments. European markets are also being pushed lower by the crisis, with the FTSE falling by 35 points to 6,996.36 at 11.30am. Greek officials are in Brussels today to [...]