RBS considers hybrid selloff February 19, 2013 STATE-BACKED bank RBS is considering selling off a stake in the 316 branches it is being forced to offload, ahead of a larger share listing or sale, it emerged yesterday. Such a move could drum up investor interest in the unit, dubbed Project Rainbow, by showing buyers are prepared to buy into the unit. The [...]
OECD falls into contraction on Eurozone woe February 19, 2013 FALLING output across the Eurozone pulled the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) group of major economies into decline in the fourth quarter of 2012, the organisation said yesterday. The total output from OECD countries fell 0.2 per cent in the final three months of last year, dragged down by a 0.6 per cent [...]
Novartis scraps £50m payoff for chairman February 19, 2013 SWISS drug firm Novartis yesterday dropped plans to pay its outgoing chairman SFr72m (£50.6m) to stop him going to work for rivals. Daniel Vasella’s golden handcuffs deal was announced on Friday but abandoned after a very negative reaction from shareholders. Executive pay has come under intense scrutiny in the country ahead of next month’s referendum [...]
Lloyds fined for failing to make PPI redress payouts on time February 19, 2013 LLOYDS was yesterday fined £4.3m for failing to compensate 140,000 payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling victims promptly, adding to the £5bn already set aside to cover the scandal. Thousands of those customers had to wait as long as six months for compensation, when it should have taken 28 days, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said. [...]
Drax gears up to total biomass conversion as annual profit falls February 19, 2013 ANNUAL profits dipped at coal fired power producer Drax, as it ramped up its transformation into a biomass-fuelled business. Drax, which runs a coal-fired power station in Yorkshire, said yesterday that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation over the full year fell to £298m from £334m in 2011, although this was in line with [...]
HTC launches high-end phone in effort to take on Samsung February 19, 2013 HTC has unveiled its new flagship handset in a bid to claw back market share from rivals. The Taiwanese firm yesterday launched its HTC One device, promising a host of new features it hopes will attract customers who have abandoned the company for smartphones made by Apple and Samsung. Chief executive Peter Chou, unveiling the [...]
Bailey gets top job in the new bank watchdog February 19, 2013 TOP regulator Andrew Bailey was yesterday named as head of the incoming Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) and deputy governor of the Bank of England, posts which give him major new powers over banks. Bailey is currently head of the prudential business unit within the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and used to be chief cashier at [...]
Bottom Line: Pay must match performance if firms want to attract the best February 19, 2013 WITH so much focus on the latest bonus controls that EU politicians want to slap on Europe’s banks, it’s sometimes easy to forget just how severely economic uncertainty has already slashed pay. It’s also often forgotten that banks aren’t just populated by the deal-makers that attract the public’s attention – behind every rainmaker there’s a [...]
Steel maker eyes £50m rights issue February 19, 2013 STRUCTURAL steelwork maker Severfield-Rowen yesterday said it was looking at a £50m rights issue, as it said it would take a £20.1m hit thanks to spiralling costs on a number of contracts. In a review of 70 of the company’s contracts, Severfield-Rowen said it would take close to a £10m charge in relation to the [...]
4G off to a slow start as EE fails to woo users February 19, 2013 THE LAUNCH of the UK’s first 4G mobile network has so far failed to convince Vodafone and O2 customers to switch to EE, company results suggested yesterday. EE, which owns Orange and T- Mobile as well as its new self-branded network, signed 201,000 new customers to contracts during the final quarter of last year. The [...]
