BoA emails leaked online by Anonymous hackers March 14, 2011 Bank of America (BoA) became the latest target of hacker group Anonymous when confidential emails were leaked online. Anonymous, a group sympathetic to WikiLeaks, say the documents relate to the issue of whether BoA has improperly foreclosed on homes. However, the emails do not appear to be as damning as the hackers hope, with little [...]
Hongqiao cuts IPO size to $1bn March 14, 2011 China Hongqiao Group, China’s biggest privately owned aluminium hydroxide producer, will relaunch its Hong Kong initial public offering as soon as next week, after cutting the size to about $1bn (£620m). The company had initially targeted raising up to $2.2bn, but pulled the deal in January due to market volatility. The group now plans to [...]
Carlyle and Tiger invest in ships March 14, 2011 Carlyle Group has formed a joint venture with maritime investment firm Tiger Group to buy more than $5bn (£3.1bn) worth of ships with a group of other investors to tap growing shipping demand in the region. The joint venture will commence operations immediately and has committed to invest equity capital of $900m in the next [...]
St Ives to sell magazine arm March 14, 2011 Printing company St Ives said it agreed to sell its loss-making magazine business for £20m to a unit of private equity firm Walstead Investments. St Ives, which prints a range of products from books to CD and DVD cases, said it would receive £15m in cash on completion of the deal and £5m in loan [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 14, 2011 SJ Berwin The international law firm has appointed Tony Angel, chief executive of healthcare technology group Vantage Diagnostics, as a non-executive director. As managing partner of Linklaters from 1998 to 2007, Angel presided over a 57 per cent turnover increase and a 108 per cent profit increase. In 2008, he joined ratings agency Standard & [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS March 14, 2011 WPP Citi rates the marketing group “buy /medium risk” with a target price of 950p. The broker has downgraded its 2011-12 forecasts by one to three per cent thanks to currency movements, but still expects organic growth of 5.6 per cent this year once the firm gets through the traditional “mid-year doldrums”. Citi says WPP [...]
The revolution will be beamed into your head March 14, 2011 THE revolution is here and it won’t be televised. It will be beamed directly into your head. It will be everywhere you go, knowing what you are thinking, what you are wearing. It will probably be able to guess what you are going to do next, before even you know it. Welcome to “Gladvertising,” the [...]
FTSE ends at three-month low on Japan crisis March 14, 2011 The FTSE slumped to a three-month low at market close as traders digested the humanitarian disaster emerging from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. Risk appetite sank, with only non-nuclear energy firms boosted by the disaster, up as the threat of a nuclear explosion in one of Japan’s three damaged power stations remained high. The FTSE 100 [...]
Vincent Tchenguiz’s Peverel in administration March 14, 2011 Embattled tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz’s property management company Peverel has entered administration after failing to repay a loan. Bank of America Merrill Lynch demanded repayment within 24 hours of a £124.6m loan plus £11.4m in accrued interest, another Vincent Tchenguiz company, Consensus Business Group, said in a statement. The demand, on March 10, came just a [...]
Facebook hires Google exec to lead M&A efforts March 14, 2011 Facebook has hired one Google’s business development executives to lead its fledgling merger and acquisition efforts. In a sign the world’s No. 1 internet social network has a growing appetite for deals, Amin Zoufonoun, a director of corporate development at Google, will join Facebook next week. The move – the latest development in the rivalry [...]