Munich Re profits slump on the back of natural disasters February 2, 2012 PROFITS at insurer Munich Re plummeted 71 per cent during 2011 after a series of earthquakes and floods hammered the firm’s bottom line. Preliminary figures show 2011 year-end net profit of €710m (£591m), down from €2.43bn in 2010. The company has promised a return to its previous levels of profitability this year, emphasising that almost [...]
TRUMP BACKS ROMNEY FOR THE WHITE HOUSE February 2, 2012 BUSINESSMAN and TV personality Donald Trump is endorsing Mitt Romney (inset) in the race for the 2012 Republican nomination, sources said yesterday, a day after US media said Trump would be endorsing Romney’s rival Newt Gingrich.
Labour calls for Network Rail execs to forfeit their bonuses February 2, 2012 POLITICIANS have called for the directors of Network Rail to turn down their bonuses. Tom Harris MP yesterday tabled a motion, signed by 27 other Labour politicians, urging chief executive Sir David Higgins and other directors to reject any bonus payments after the rail watchdog ORR censured the group for “major asset failures, congested routes [...]
It ain’t over until Ivan Glasenberg sings February 2, 2012 IT ain’t over till Ivan Glasenberg sings. Everyone knows the rationale for the deal: massive scale, a raft of cost-saving synergies, and a much-improved presence for Glencore in commodity markets. Indeed one of the main reasons the famously secretive Glencore went public was so it could bag Xstrata, whose other shareholders were cold on a [...]
HOW A COMBINED COMPANY WOULD LOOK February 2, 2012 EMPLOYEES 127,500 GLENCORE 57,500 XSTRATA 70,000 REVENUE $175.5BN GLENCORE $145BN* XSTRATA $30.5BN* OPERATING PROFIT $14.2BN GLENCORE $3.8BN* XSTRATA $10.4BN* GLENCORE The world’s largest commodities trading house also extracts, ships and refines raw materials in three groups – metals and minerals; energy products; and agricultural products. XSTRATA One of the world’s biggest mining groups, whose assets [...]
Glenstrata: a company to reckon with February 2, 2012 THE “merger of equals” of Glencore and Xstrata will create a corporate titan worth an estimated £50bn. The firms are headquartered within 3km of each other in Switzerland, and have been the subject of speculation over a possible tie-up for months. A merger would mean a combined workforce of 127,500 with revenue of $175.5bn (£110.9bn). [...]
Directors scrap for positions post-merger February 2, 2012 MERGING Glencore and Xstrata will create fierce competition for positions on the new board – and most of the potential directors already know each other. The two firms have a long history of sharing board members and are based just 3km apart in the twin towns of Zug and Baar, Switzerland. Mick Davis was a Glencore employee [...]
Zynga soars but Facebook has yet to fly February 2, 2012 ZYNGA shares jumped 17 per cent yesterday following Facebook’s revelation that 12 per cent of its 2011 revenues came from the social gaming company. Facebook’s IPO filing on Wednesday also confirmed that Morgan Stanley will lead the troupe of underwriters, who could accept a fee of just one per cent in their keenness to land [...]
BarCap’s mandate on $5bn float shows its growing clout February 2, 2012 BARCLAYS Capital’s claims to be one of the major players in the world of equity capital markets will only have been enhanced by its inclusion as one of the book-runners in Facebook’s $5bn flotation. It is the only UK-based bank on the list and that alone can act to reinforce the view that it picked [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU BELIEVE ZUCKERBERG WHEN HE SAYS “WE DON’T BUILD SERVICES TO MAKE MONEY; WE MAKE MONEY TO BUILD BETTER SERVICES”? February 2, 2012 VIVEK ABRAHAM | TATE BANK OF INDIA “I think he’s in it for the money – he’s getting a big chunk of it! This way his investors can get out of the business. I don’t believe he just wants to build the technology.” REBECCA HOBBS | RECRUITER “It’s for financial reasons. Facebook is all free [...]