CIT to submit survival plans August 13, 2009 CIT Group, the ailing US lender, has promised to present a plan of action, showing how it will get out of a liquidity crisis, to its regulator within 15 days. Shares of the firm climbed as much as 19 per cent after the statement, which fuelled hopes the lender can avoid bankruptcy. CIT agreed to [...]
RWE books jump in profits despite poor trading in UK August 13, 2009 RWE, Europe’s fifth-largest utility, yesterday met forecasts with a 3.8 per cent rise in first-half operating profit, as lucrative power sales made up for a weak performance at its UK subsidiary NPower. The German power giant said it made an operating profit of €4.1bn (£3.5bn) in the six months to June. Earnings, which had been [...]
AIG takes axe to 900 US jobs August 13, 2009 AMERICAN International Group’s money-losing consumer finance unit yesterday said it eliminated 900 jobs and closed 145 branches in the first half of the year, and may make further cutbacks as it prepares to be sold. In a regulatory filing, American General Finance said its quarterly loss increased sevenfold to $227.2m from $31.8m a year earlier, [...]
HOT TUNA GOES FISHING August 13, 2009 SURFWEAR fashion brand Hot Tuna, which recently completed a restructuring to help it weather the retail downturn, said yesterday it had raised £1.1m through a share placing to fund expansion into new markets. Hot Tuna also said it had appointed executive director Geoff O’Connell, a four-year veteran of the company, as its new chief executive.
Tomkins set for further job cuts August 13, 2009 Engineering group Tomkins reported better-than-expected first-half adjusted operating profit yesterday and said deep cost cuts should help it through an uncertain business climate. The company said it would cut another 1,600 jobs by year-end after 3,900 cuts in the first half, and that it was on track to produce annual savings of $150m (£90.4m) by [...]
Ford to make more cars in US August 13, 2009 Carmaker Ford said yesterday it planned to build more of its popular Focus and Escape vehicles this quarter, in order to meet increasing demand from the US government’s “cash for clunkers” programme. The company now expects to produce 495,000 vehicles in the third quarter, up two per cent from its prior forecast of 485,000. The [...]
Hyundai boosted by scrappage August 13, 2009 Hyundai expects to boost its full-year US car sales, it said yesterday, reversing a decline in the first seven months. The carmaker has been helped out by the US government’s trade-in scrap scheme. The clunkers programme helped South Korea’s biggest carmaker boost July sales by 12 per cent, and now accounts for much as 40 [...]
Paulson gambles on US banking revival August 13, 2009 HIGH-PROFILE hedge fund manager John Paulson has taken a bet of more than $2.5bn (£1.5bn) on the recovery of US banks, handing a vote of confidence to a beleaguered Wall Street. Regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show that Paulson bought 168m shares in Bank of America (BoA) during the second [...]
The Pru raises its dividend as boss departs August 13, 2009 INSURER Prudential outpaced its rivals yesterday when it raised its interim dividend and reported a smaller-than-expected drop in first-half profit. The UK’s largest insurer said its operating profit fell eight per cent to £1.25bn on the widely recognised European embedded value measure (EEV) – which tracks future earnings from life insurance policies – compared to [...]
CITY VIEWS: WAS THE FSA’S CLIMB DOWN ON BONUSES THE ONLY SENSIBLE OPTION? August 13, 2009 ADAM MITCHELL LLOYD’S SYNDICATE“No. The FSA’s backtrack on bonus regulation wasn’t necessary. In fact, they should be firmer in their monitoring. Remuneration policies need overseeing, and the FSA and the government should both take responsibility to see that bonuses don’t get out of hand.” BEN LAWLOR ASSET MANAGEMENT“We’re in a free market, so regulation should [...]
