Boots backs boss Hornby as sales jump November 3, 2009 ALLIANCE Boots, Britain’s biggest pharmacy chain, yesterday said that it was on track to beat current trading expectations after reporting a jump in sales at its Health & Beauty and wholesale divisions. Chief executive Andy Hornby, who formerly ran near-failed bank HBOS?and supermarket Asda, announced the good news as he unveiled his set of results [...]
Rolls Royce disappoints in its interim trading update November 3, 2009 SHARES in engine-maker Rolls Royce fell yesterday after the company’s interim trading update disappointed investors. The company said that “trading activity across the group’s businesses remains in line with expectations,” but it added that while revenues would grow in 2009, underlying profits would be flat compared to the previous year. Evolution Securities repeated its “sell” [...]
Banking shake-up gives the markets a case of the jitters November 3, 2009 BRITAIN’S top share index fell to its lowest closing level in a month yesterday, led down by banks after shake-ups at Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds and poor results from Swiss peer UBS The FTSE 100 closed 67.29 points or 1.3 per cent weaker at 5,037.21, having surrendered the 5,000 level for the first [...]
Buffet’s bet leads to cheer on WallSt November 3, 2009 The Standard and Poor’s 500 and Nasdaq rose slightly yesterday as news of a major railroad acquisition helped sentiment, but the Dow edged lower on caution before a Federal Reserve statement on interest rates and the economy. Morgan Stanley’s downgrade of semiconductor stocks also limited a broad advance. The Dow Jones Transportation Average rose 5.3 [...]
Myths and reality of the bank shake-up November 3, 2009 AS predictably as day follows night, the myth-making machine spiralled out of control again yesterday. Perhaps the biggest is that the UK banking system is uniquely concentrated. As Citigroup research reveals, this simply is not so: overall UK banking system concentration (using the World Bank’s measure of assets of the biggest three banks as a [...]
REVOLUTION ON THE BANKING HIGH STREET – KEY POINTS November 3, 2009 ASSET PROTECTION SCHEMERBS:• Will receive a £25.5bn capital injection from government: £13bn upfront; £6bn of discretionary capital; and £6.5bn in a fee taken as capital.• Toxic assets placed in the APS cut from £325bn to £282bn.• RBS must cover first £60bn – not the £42bn that was first envisaged?– of losses on toxic assets in [...]
Czechs sign up to the EUtreaty November 3, 2009 EU banking supremo Neelie Kroes might be an all-powerful figure as she carves up some of Britain’s largest banks – but her successor will have a lot more clout. With Czech President Václav Klaus adding his signature to the Lisbon Treaty yesterday, the EU is set to have even more powers over Europe’s financial system. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 3, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES INDIA SOLD ON GOLDGold surged to an all-time high after India bought 200 tonnes of the precious metal, swapping dollars for bullion as the finance minister warned the economies of the US and Europe had ‘collapsed’. India’s decision to exchange $6.7bn for gold equivalent to eight per cent of world annual mine production [...]
Revamp rocks Barclays bank November 3, 2009 BARCLAYS announced the surprise departure of the head of its global retail and commercial banking (GRCB) division yesterday in a management shake-up that will boost the empire overseen by the group’s president Bob Diamond. Barclays said it was splitting up GRCB and that its boss Frits Seegers had resigned as a director and would leave [...]
Myners calls on investors to enforce a bonus clampdown November 3, 2009 CITY minister Lord Myners yesterday called on institutional investors to clamp down on bumper bonuses across the whole banking sector as he outlined Treasury plans to replace cash bonuses with equity-based payouts for high-earning staff at part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. RBS and Lloyds have agreed to halt all discretionary cash [...]
