Black cab firm cuts losses on growth abroad March 26, 2012 MANGANESE Bronze, the maker of London’s traditional black cabs, has posted a narrower annual loss as overseas demand for its vehicles grew and margins increased. The Coventry-based company reduced pre-tax losses to £2.6m in 2011, down from £6.3m the year before, and said it is well positioned to place a profit in 2012. Sales of [...]
Coutts fined over client cash checks March 26, 2012 COUTTS has been fined £8.75m for “significant, widespread and unacceptable” failings in its money laundering controls, its second regulatory penalty in four months. The private bank, which is owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, was found to have made inadequate checks on clients who are considered “politically exposed persons” – people whose prominent position in [...]
Korea’s £200bn pension fund comes to in London March 26, 2012 SOUTH Korea’s enormous national pension fund is to open an office in London, boosting the government’s attempts to attract foreign investment in British infrastructure. The $320bn (£200bn) fund is looking to double the size of its existing overseas portfolio to around $60bn and has already spent a substantial sum on British projects in the last [...]
HSBC mulls a new asset sale to lift returns March 26, 2012 HSBC has begun talks about offloading its Mauritius retail banking and wealth management division as it continues to target better investor returns. The bank is believed to have received three approaches for the arm, the origins of which go back to the middle of the nineteenth century. Yesterday HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, confirmed it was [...]
Spanish banks to merge March 26, 2012 SPAIN’S La Caixa agreed last night to the takeover of smaller rival Banca Civica by its listed arm CaixaBank, creating Spain’s biggest bank by domestic assets. CaixaBank offered €1.97 per share for Banca Civica in an all-share deal valuing the whole bank at €980m. A second wave of consolidation in the Spanish banking sector is [...]
BATS sticks with Chi-X tech move March 26, 2012 BATS GLOBAL Markets is pushing ahead with plans to move its Chi-X platform, Europe’s largest share trading venue, to its own technology after a software bug forced the exchange operator to take the embarrassing step of pulling its own listing last week. The third-largest US stock exchange was due to be the first listing on [...]
EU near to ban on high tech trading March 26, 2012 COMMODITIES traders could face limits on the positions they can take, aimed at cutting down on speculation if regulators get their way in negotiations this week. EU policymakers also want to ban banks from giving outside brokers direct access to markets as part of a sweeping crackdown on computerised high-frequency trading (HFT), a European Parliament [...]
OBR: Credit easing will have little impact March 26, 2012 TOTAL lending will not be boosted by the government’s credit easing scheme, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) warned yesterday – though the programme should shift the balance of lending towards small firms. The government’s national loan guarantee programme aims to give £20bn of support to lending, lowering small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) borrowing costs [...]
AstraZeneca’s chief lands a bumper £9m pay package March 26, 2012 THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of AstraZeneca, Britain’s second-biggest pharmaceuticals company, was awarded a total pay package of more than £9m last year, against £5.5m in 2010. The company’s annual report published yesterday showed that David Brennan’s basic salary rose 2.5 per cent to £997,000 in 2011 in line with pay rises across the group, and this [...]
Hands finding green fingers in £276m deal March 26, 2012 GUY Hands has sought to move on from his troubled investment in EMI by agreeing a £276m deal to buy Garden Centre Group (GCG). His Terra Firma vehicle beat competition from several private equity rivals to take the retailer off the hands of Lloyds after the bank, 41 per cent taxpayer owned, and Sir Tom [...]