CITY’S FINEST TURN OUT IN STYLE TO HONOUR THE WOMEN OF THE FUTURE November 12, 2009 CORPORATE party-goers have been busy this week with a string of shindigs in a row, and last night saw the City’s female contingent descending upon the Marriott hotel in Grosvenor Square for the Women of the Future awards. The ladies weren’t short of powerful supporters, either – even Tory leader David Cameron showed up to [...]
BA AND IBERIA SEAL MERGER November 12, 2009 BRITISH Airways last night sealed a £4bn merger deal with Spanish carrier Iberia to create an aviation giant. The two loss-making companies said they had reached a preliminary agreement for the tie-up that will see BA shareholders take 55 per cent of the combined group, with Iberia holding the remaining 45 per cent. BA chief [...]
Hedgies to face EU pay curbs November 12, 2009 THERE was growing anger in London’s hedge fund community last night, after it emerged that the European Union plans to treat funds like banks by forcing them to defer up to 60 per cent of managers’ variable pay. According to a draft version of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive seen by City A.M., [...]
BA merger is a wake-up call for London November 12, 2009 CONGRATULATIONS to Willie Walsh, British Airways’ chief executive, for having pulled off a better than expected deal in his merger talks with Iberia. BA shareholders will own 55 per cent of the new company, while Iberia’s will hold 45 per cent; that is better than the 53-47 per cent split many had expected. Even though [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 12, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES NATIONAL EXPRESS FACES EUROSTAR BILLNational Express could be saddled with a bill of up to £32m to cover losses made by Eurostar, the cross-Channel rail service. The indebted transport group, which gives up its lossmaking East Coast rail franchise tonight, is the leading shareholder in a consortium that manages the UK end of [...]
WHAT WILL A MERGED BA/IBERIA LOOK LIKE? November 12, 2009 Q. HOW MANY AIRCRAFT, STAFF AND PASSENGERS?A. Combined, the carrier will have 419 aircraft and carry 62m passengers. Based on the 42,000 staff that BA currently employs and the 21,600 of Iberia, it will employ 63,600 staff, but headcount is expected to drop at a merged group. Q. THEY’VE BEEN IN TALKS FOR OVER A [...]
Buffett and Gates: panic is over November 12, 2009 The worst recession since the 1930s is over, according to two of the world’s richest men. Famed investor Warren Buffett told an audience of business students in New York: “The financial panic is behind us. Our economy was sputtering. And still is sputtering some.” And he added that the US was the best place for [...]
Ladbrokes closes London casino November 12, 2009 Ladbrokes is understood to have closed its loss-making casino in Paddington, West London, with the loss of 100 jobs. The bookmaker is also thought to have agreed a sale of the licence to Quek Leng Chan, the Malaysian tycoon that owns the Thistle and Guoman hotel chains. Quek entered the UK casino market three years [...]
Intel settles up with AMD in $1.25bn deal November 12, 2009 INTEL has agreed to pay rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) $1.25bn (£755m) to settle all outstanding legal disputes. The settlement ends a campaign that AMD has been waging against its larger rival which stretches back 12 years, and will give the firm vital funds to pay down its $3.2bn of debt. AMD took legal action [...]
Watchdog tells US banks to pay $45bn into insurance pot November 12, 2009 US banks are to pay $45bn (£27bn) to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) to cover the rising cost of banking failures. In an unprecedented move, the FDIC board approved the prepayment of three years of premiums at a meeting yesterday. The prepayment has been described as an alternative to imposing another hefty emergency fee [...]
