Putin teams up with Chavez in $2.6bn oil deal December 8, 2011 RUSSIA has agreed to team up with Hugo Chavez to produce oil in the lucrative Venezuelan oil fields. Russia’s state-owned venture Rosneft has signed a memo of understanding with Petróleos de Venezuela to explore blocks in the Orinoco Belt that are thought to contain up to 40bn barrels of oil. Rosneft has paid a $440m [...]
MUNICH RE SEES €500M THAI FLOOD LOSS December 8, 2011 FLOODS to hit Thailand last month are the costliest natural disaster ever to hit the country, Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer, said yesterday. Munich Re said it would bear losses of €500m (£429m) from the catastrophe, which has claimed more than 600 lives and wrecked critical industrial areas around the capital Bangkok. Picture: REX
PIPPA MIDDLETON JOINS BANKERS AT MAHIKI DUO’S LOW-KEY LAUNCH December 8, 2011 PIPPA Middleton is out and about again after splitting from her boyfriend Alex Loudon, an analyst at brewing giant SAB Miller. And one of the first places Middleton has patronised in her newly single life is the Markham Inn on Elystan Street, the latest restaurant venture from Mahiki owners Nick House and Piers Adam that [...]
StanChart to see profits grow by 10pc December 8, 2011 STANDARD Chartered confirmed it will see double-digit profit growth this year of at least 10 per cent, helped by a strong performance in emerging markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong. However, the bank said that although it had “a strong pipeline in difficult market conditions”, income in 2011 is now expected to grow at [...]
E&Y to examine its involvement with Olympus December 8, 2011 THE JAPANESE arm of Ernst & Young is to set up an external committee to investigate its audit of scandal-ridden Olympus. The move follows a separate probe into an accounting scandal at the camera maker, which raised issues with its audit and work done by a previous auditor. Ernst & Young ShinNihon said it has [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF STANCHART’S LATEST UPDATE? December 8, 2011 BRUCE PACKARD | Seymour Pierce The bank is currently trading on 1.8 times tangible book value, well ahead of European banks. In one sense we think this is justified given the geographies that StanChart operates in, however we are concerned that the secondary effects of the European bond turmoil will impact Asian trade… Hold. GARY [...]
Tullett’s COO to step down after 17 years December 8, 2011 INTERDEALER broker Tullett Prebon abruptly announced that its long-serving chief operating officer Steph Duckworth was leaving yesterday. Duckworth, who spent 17 years with the company after joining its predecessor entity Liberty in the 1990s, resigned yesterday, Tullett said, without specifying when he would go or who would succeed him. A person familiar with his departure [...]
Korhonen out at flagging Fidelity fund December 8, 2011 THE INVESTMENT chief who took over half of Anthony Bolton’s flagship Fidelity fund has left after a series of losses. Jorma Korhonen will be replaced by Jeremy Podger as manager of the £1.5bn Global Special Situations fund. Sudipto Banerji, a veteran Fidelity manager, will take over until Podger arrives from Threadneedle in March. Meera Patel [...]
GOLDEN ARCHES STILL SHINING December 8, 2011 McDonald’s last night reported a bigger-than-expected rise in November sales at established restaurants across the board. The world’s biggest hamburger chain said sales at restaurants open at least 13 months rose 7.4 per cent globally. In Europe, where the chain derives 40 per cent of revenue, same-restaurant sales rose 6.5 per cent.
Mulberry bags a big profit overseas December 8, 2011 MULBERRY, the “affordable luxury” fashion brand whose bags have adorned the arms of Kate Middleton and Kate Moss, yesterday reported a trebling of pre-tax profits to £15.6m. It also saw its half-year retail sales jump 47 per cent year-on-year, buoyed by soaring international demand for its designer handbags. The company reached total revenues of £72.3m, [...]