THE TIPSTER December 1, 2009 LAST week’s market jitters over the Dubai World debt debacle certainly sent traders heading towards the perceived safe havens with cable dropping over 400 points in little more than 24 hours. However, as the fall-out of the situation is put into context and renegotiation gets underway, many traders seem happy to start winding up the [...]
SAVINGS GIANTS IN MEGA-MERGER December 1, 2009 YORKSHIRE Building Society is in advanced merger talks with beleaguered competitor Chelsea, in a deal experts said could fuel further consolidation in the sector. A tie-up, yet to be approved by the FSA, would create a major force in the building society arena. With £38bn assets and 2.7m members it would be second only to [...]
GM BOSS IS OUSTED AFTER JUST EIGHT MONTHS IN JOB December 1, 2009 GENERAL MOTORS, the ailing car giant that recently emerged from the biggest bankruptcy in US history, last night ousted its chief executive Fritz Henderson after just eight months in the top role. Henderson, a GM veteran who has been with the car firm since 1984, was appointed as chief executive at the end of March [...]
Sheikh hits out at the reaction to Dubai crisis December 1, 2009 THE RULER of Dubai yesterday slammed the reaction of international investors to the emirate’s debt crisis, claiming: “They do not understand anything.” A day after the finance minister said the government would not back debt-laden Dubai World, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum defiantly said: “We are strong and persistent. It is the fruit-bearing tree that [...]
Barclays gets 1bn BGI boost December 1, 2009 BARCLAYS last night cheered a £1.3bn boost from the expected sale of its asset management arm to US fund manager BlackRock, due to a 62 per cent hike in the fund manager’s shares since the deal was struck in June. The bank said it had completed the $15.2bn (£9.1bn) sale of Barclays Global Investors (BGI) [...]
High earners set to be hit by new taxes December 1, 2009 FOR those bankers who had become a tad complacent, I have some news for you: the Tories are still not ruling out a windfall tax on banks if their behaviour doesn’t conform to what is expected of them on pay and lending. I asked Mark Hoban, a key member of George Osborne’s shadow treasury team, [...]
Tullow eyes Uganda stake December 1, 2009 EXPLORER Tullow Oil is “seriously considering” buying Heritage Oil’s Ugandan field stake in a move which would potentially scupper a $1.5bn (£902m) deal with Eni, City A.M. can confirm. Tullow and Heritage are equal partners in two exploration blocks in Uganda’s Lake Albert. Heritage has been in early talks with Eni, Italy’s biggest energy company, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 1, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES HIT HAMSTER RANGE LIFTS CHARACTER GROUPToymaker and distributor The Character Group has predicted Christmas shortages of its most popular lines of children’s gifts, including Go Go Pets, based on a range of battery-powered interactive hamsters. John Lewis, the department store chain, has already imposed a limit of one order per customer for the [...]
Obama boosts troops by 30,000 December 1, 2009 President Barack Obama will today say he is sending 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan by next summer to speed up the battle against the Taliban and bring some soldiers home in 19 months. Obama will say the troops will be deployed in the first part of 2010 at the fastest pace possible. There are [...]
AIG makes $25bn from disposals December 1, 2009 Insurance giant American International Group yesterday cut its debt to the US taxpayer by $25bn (£15bn) by selling stakes in two of its subsidiaries to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. AIG said that under the debt-for-equity swap the NY Fed would receive preferred shares with a liquidation preference worth $16bn in American Life [...]
