Prosecutors up charges against Goldman’s Gupta February 1, 2012 CHARGES against former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta have been expanded by US prosecutors, who have doubled to four the number of illicit tips Gupta allegedly passed to hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. They also increased the length of Gupta’s illegal dealings, claiming they began in March 2007 rather than the previously stated 2008. This could [...]
TPG triumphs in £500m fight for GlobeOp February 1, 2012 SHARES in hedge fund administrator GlobeOp leapt by more than a fifth yesterday after it agreed its £508m sale to US private equity house TPG Capital. The stock closed up 21.27 per cent at 430.5p after TPG set out to build a presence in the market serving the $2 trillion (£1.26 trillion) hedge fund sector. [...]
Lloyds shakes up exec board February 1, 2012 TRUETT Tate, the widely respected head of wholesale at Lloyds, will leave his job by the end of the month, the bank confirmed yesterday as part of a management overhaul. The shake-up will see the number of executives who report to chief executive António Horta-Osório cut from 13 to five in an attempt to reduce [...]
US says Credit Suisse traders falsified books February 1, 2012 SEVERAL former Credit Suisse traders manipulated the books on mortgage-backed securities when the US real estate market slumped in 2007 and 2008, a former London-based trader at the investment bank admitted in court yesterday. The former trader, David Higgs, pleaded guilty in US District Court in New York to a criminal charge of conspiracy to [...]
Deutsche loses its key G4S adviser February 1, 2012 TOBY Clark, one of the key advisers on the aborted £5.2bn takeover of the services group ISS by G4S, has left Deutsche Bank, the bank that led the advice on the deal. City bankers say they became aware of his departure from Deutsche earlier this week when his email account was closed down. Friends say [...]
MPs overturn welfare reform made by Lords February 1, 2012 MEMBERS of Parliament last night reinstated parts of the new welfare bill that had been defeated in the House of Lords. The House of Commons voted in favour of the £26,000 a year benefit cap, including child benefit, despite protests last week from the upper house of parliament. The government secured a majority to overrule [...]
Duke Street shelves plan for €850m fundraising February 1, 2012 THE PRIVATE equity house behind Japanese restaurant chain Wagamama and payments network Payzone has pulled a €850m (£706.5m) fundraising as global market turmoil shows little sign of easing. Duke Street now wants to raise cash for every one or two deals it carries out, although it is set to receive payments to cover operational costs [...]
UK’s factories bounce back February 1, 2012 MANUFACTURING output jumped in January, taking the UK out of the stagnation experienced in December, purchasing managers’ index (PMI) figures from Markit showed yesterday. Output rose, registering a PMI of 52.1, up from 49.7 in December and hitting its highest level since May 2011, with new orders at their highest since March. Any figure above [...]
Belgian double dip sparks worries over euro growth February 1, 2012 BELGIUM yesterday confirmed its unenviable title as the first non-bailed-out Eurozone member to fall back into an official recession. GDP in Belgium, the bloc’s sixth largest economy, shrank by 0.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011, following a quarterly contraction of 0.1 per cent in the July to September period. Belgium is often [...]
IFS: A budget giveaway will risk disaster February 1, 2012 PUBLIC borrowing is likely to come in around £2.9bn below the latest official forecasts in 2011-12 and £9bn lower by 2016-17, analysis published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimated yesterday. However, chancellor George Osborne should be wary of indulging in a spending splurge in next month’s budget – spending would have to be [...]