German house building to rise March 20, 2012 GERMANY’S construction boom is “set to continue”, a leading economic think tank said yesterday. Investors in Europe’s largest economy are keeping their money at home rather than risking it elsewhere in the Eurozone, the Munich-based IFO Institute said. “Growth in housing construction is expected to increase by an annual average of 0.9 per cent through [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 20, 2012 JAG Shaw The boutique corporate law firm has announced the hiring of Susanna Stanfield. JAG Shaw focuses on providing advice on venture capital and private equity matters, with particular expertise in the life sciences and technology sectors. Stanfield, a corporate lawyer who has spent over ten years in the venture capital practice of Taylor Wessing, [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS March 20, 2012 ARM HOLDINGS Barclays has upgraded the Cambridge-based chipmaker from “equalweight” to “overweight” and raised its target price to 725p, saying it sees smartphone and tablet growth driving an upside to its expectations, as well as a return to positive estimate momentum. The broker expects ARM to maintain the upper hand versus Intel in tablets, and [...]
Glencore to buy Viterra for £3.9bn March 20, 2012 Glencore, the world’s largest commodities trader, is buying Canada’s leading grain handler, Viterra, in a cash deal valuing it at C$6.1bn (£3.9bn). Glencore, which is also in the throes of a $36bn takeover of miner Xstrata, already markets and produces crops as well as metals, minerals and oil, but has earmarked agricultural commodities as an [...]
RBC buys Coutts units from Royal Bank of Scotland March 20, 2012 Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) will buy some overseas divisions of the Coutts private banking business from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), giving RBC access to high net worth individuals in fast-growing emerging markets. Canada’s largest bank is buying Coutts’ Latin American, Caribbean and African private banking arms, which managed around £1.5bn of assets, in [...]
Cairn hit by Greenland exploration failures March 20, 2012 British oil explorer Cairn Energy said it will spend some of its $1.2bn (£756.2m) of cash on deals in oil development and production as it seeks new projects to offset its exposure to exploration in Greenland. “We do have that exposure to transformational exploration currently in the portfolio,” chief executive Simon Thomson said. “So naturally, [...]
Miners peg back FTSE as UK inflation dips again March 20, 2012 Miners pegged the FTSE 100 back in early trading as fears that demand from China for metals was falling sapped investor confidence. BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest miner, fell 1.9 per cent after saying it was seeing signs of “flattening” iron ore demand from China. The sector is pinning its hopes on continuing fast growth [...]
Inflation rate falls to 3.4 per cent March 20, 2012 The UK inflation rate continued to fall in February, thanks largely to lower gas and electricity bills. Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation fell to 3.4 per cent in February, down from 3.6 per cent in January, Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed, Inflation has been falling steadily since September and the CPI rate is [...]
AstraZeneca abandons Targacept anti-depressant March 20, 2012 AstraZeneca has thrown in the towel on an experimental antidepressant targeting nicotine receptors after the drug licensed from Targacept failed in remaining clinical trials, thinning out its pipeline further. Britain’s second-biggest drug maker will take an impairment charge of $50m, representing the rest of the value of TC-5214, which had already seen an earlier write-down [...]
RBS to slim down Asian business March 20, 2012 Royal Bank of Scotland is closing its equity capital market and corporate finance units in South Korea and cash equities businesses in Indonesia, Korea and Singapore in the latest move to cut the size of its struggling investment bank. The decision sheds light on the British lender’s recent agreement with CIMB Group Holdings Bhd for [...]