US drugmaker Perrigo buys Elan for $8.6bn July 29, 2013 IRISH biotech firm Elan yesterday accepted an $8.6bn takeover offer from US drug maker Perrigo, just weeks after batting off a hostile approach from Royalty Pharma. Perrigo will pay $6.25 per share in cash plus $10.25 per share in stock for Elan, in a deal that will see the Michigan firm almost halve its [...]
Bottom Line: Right prescription for all parties July 29, 2013 JOE PAPA’S maths may leave something to be desired – he said yesterday the Perrigo-Elan tie-up was a case of one plus one making at least three – but his dealmaking can’t be faulted. After waiting in the wings while Royalty Pharma repeatedly threw itself at the Irish biotech group, Papa yesterday revealed himself [...]
Aberdeen hit by fund pull back July 29, 2013 FUND manager Aberdeen Asset Management yesterday revealed its first quarterly outflow for nearly two years as investors took out cash during last month’s market tumble. The money manager said investors pulled £3.4bn from funds in the third quarter, with about £2.5bn of this taken out in June as investors headed for the exit door over [...]
Metro Bank gains customers and branches but posts a loss July 29, 2013 METRO Bank made another loss in the first half of the year, the high street lender said yesterday, in part because of the ongoing costs of its expansion. The three-year-old bank has deposits of £870m, an increase of more than 50 per cent since the start of this year. And lending has more than doubled [...]
Schauble backs bondholders as Troika reports July 29, 2013 THE TRIO of Greece’s international lenders, known as the Troika, published their third review of the country’s ongoing bailout yesterday. German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble told media in his home country that the Greek government must fulfil its obligations, and that bondholders would not undergo further haircuts. The Troika, which is made up of the [...]
Hiscox boss says insurers must not rely on investment income July 29, 2013 INSURERS must concentrate on their core business and ignore investment income if they want to make a profit, the chairman of Hiscox said yesterday. “The investment area is going to remain turbulent,” Robert Childs told City A.M. “No insurer or reinsurer should be looking to rely on anything but underwriting profit at the moment.” Insurers invest premiums [...]
LV= boss warns car costs to rise July 29, 2013 DRIVERS should expect to pay more for car insurance next year, the boss of LV= told City A.M yesterday. Mike Rogers, chief executive of the mutual, said he is worried recent price cuts prompted by a ban on referral fees may have “gone too far”, unless claim levels start to fall. He was speaking as the [...]
Firms reject a Eurozone exit July 29, 2013 LESS than a quarter of Eurozone businesses expect a country to leave the currency union in the 12 months ahead, according to Sentix. Only 23.75 per cent of firms suggested that a country’s exit from the euro area was likely in the next year, while 73 per cent did at this time last year. At [...]
Japanese banks see profits soar after money printing splurge July 29, 2013 DAIWA Securities and Sumitomo Mitsui yesterday both reported huge jumps in earnings in the first quarter of the new financial year, the three-month period in which Japan’s central bank cranked up the printing presses. Daiwa’s profits came in at ¥57.3bn (£381m), more than 20 times higher than the ¥2.7bn profit in the same period of [...]
Chinese auditors launch urgent assessment of mounting debt July 29, 2013 THE CHINESE national audit office is to undertake a review of the government’s debts, following instruction from the government’s State Council, which is chaired by Premier Li Keqiang. The office released a one-line statement announcing the review. The People’s Daily, a Chinese communist party newspaper, followed with an article suggesting that the project may require [...]