L&S in £215m property bid April 27, 2010 Property investment firm London & Stamford will snap up £215m of former HBOS-backed properties from Warner Estates and Lloyds Banking Group. It will buy the Radial distribution fund, which was a 50-50 venture between HBOS and Warner.
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 27, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES MARKET SHARE SLIP FORCES ASDA TO FIGHT BACK Asda has been forced to fight back with a new marketing push as it saw the slowest sales growth of the big four supermarkets for the fourth consecutive month, according to industry data. Kantar Worldpanel, the consumer research group, found that Asda had the lowest [...]
Goldman: CDO trades were not dishonest April 27, 2010 Goldman executives were yesterday forced to deny allegations they misled clients about debt products they knew were destined to fail. The committee, chaired by senator Carl Levin, quoted a series of embarrassing emails in which Goldman staff referred to one of its products as “crap”, a $1bn collateralised debt obligation (CDO) as “one shitty deal” [...]
Fabulous Fab keeps his cool in face of grilling April 27, 2010 Fabrice Tourre, the London-based banker at the centre of a $1bn (£650m) fraud investigation, appeared calm and collected as he faced the grilling of his life in front of the senate sub-committee. He seemed unaffected by the barrage of abuse fired at him from a small army of hecklers intent on unsettling him. The Frenchman [...]
Man behind Pru break-up plot unmasked April 27, 2010 PATRICE Collette, an investment manager with US-based Capital Research and Management, has emerged as the man at the centre of a plot to break up insurer Prudential. City A.M. understands Collette, who works from Geneva, is the fund boss at Capital Research who held talks with third parties including life company Aviva with a view [...]
Own up over cuts, says IFS April 27, 2010 THE MAIN political parties are preventing voters from making an “informed choice” at the general election by refusing to explain how they will reduce the country’s yawning £163bn budget deficit, according to a leading economic think-tank. The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) said repairing the parlous public finances will dominate the next government’s agenda, but [...]
ELECTION2010 April 27, 2010 Tories ahead in donations The Conservatives have yet again received the highest amount in donations in the second week of campaigning ahead of the general election on 6 May. Between 13 and 19 April the Tories received £2,2m in donations worth over £7,500, Labour £1,49m and the Liberal Democrats £120,000. Tories keep 4 point lead [...]
Lloyds back in profitability April 27, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group roared out of the red over the first three months of the year as provisions for bad debts fell, raising market expectations that the group will post a profit at the end of the year. Consensus analyst forecasts before yesterday’s first-quarter results were for Lloyds to report a small loss of almost [...]
Deutsche Bank unveils record investment banking profits April 27, 2010 DEUTSCHE Bank smashed expectations yesterday by reporting record profits at its investment banking arm, as it deflected speculation over its role in mortgage deals similar to the one over which Goldman Sachs is facing civil fraud charges. Deutsche made a pre-tax profit of €2.8bn (£2.43bn) over the first quarter, 55 per cent higher than in [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK FOR LLOYDS BANKING GROUP NOW? April 27, 2010 JOE DICKERSON | EXECUTION NOBLE The profitability we predicted is delivering a quarter or so earlier than expected, which is encouraging. Nearly every element is moving in the right direction and Lloyds could see material pre-provision profit growth this year. NIC CLARKE | CHARLES STANLEY Lloyds has reached profitability earlier than expected, but we remain [...]