Facebook unveils float of the year February 1, 2012 FACEBOOK has taken the first official step to becoming a publicly traded company, filing papers yesterday that outline plans to raise $5bn in what could be the biggest float this year. Silicon Valley’s most anticipated flotation will see Facebook represented by ticker symbol FB, although the company did not specify whether it would list on [...]
Hoare Govett sold at a cost February 1, 2012 BRITISH taxpayers will still have to fork out for the salaries of some Hoare Govett staff after Royal Bank of Scotland sold the legendary stockbroker for just £1. RBS last night agreed to offload Hoare Govett to US investment bank Jefferies and City A.M. understands the state-owned lender will pay some staff costs after the [...]
EU blocks bourse merger February 1, 2012 EU REGULATORS have blocked the $7.4bn (£4.7bn) deal to merge exchange operators Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext, saying the combined firm would have killed competition in the European futures market. The two companies are now set to abandon the plan, which would have created the world’s biggest stock exchange. Neither firm was willing to placate [...]
Dozens die as riots erupt at Egyptian match February 1, 2012 MORE than 70 people died as football supporters wielding makeshift weapons invaded the pitch and caused a stampede following a match in Port Said, Egypt, last night. Hundreds more suffered injury when fans of Masry rioted, chasing players and fans from bitter rivals Al-Ahly, after their unexpected win over the country’s top team. It is [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 1, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES CALLS MOUNT TO CUT TRINITY MIRROR CHIEF’S PAY Trinity Mirror is facing renewed pressure to rein in the pay of its chief executive Sly Bailey from some of the biggest shareholders in the media group. The shareholders will set out their mounting unhappiness over the pay when Trinity Mirror’s incoming chairman David Grigson [...]
Protests over downgrade of Fred Goodwin February 1, 2012 SENIOR politicians and City heavyweights including Alistair Darling and Terry Smith yesterday led the backlash against the decision to strip of Fred Goodwin of his knighthood. Darling, the former Labour chancellor, said it was “tawdry” for the government to target Goodwin, and asked: “If it’s right to annul his knighthood what about the honours of [...]
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 [...]