GLG’s losses ease as its assets soar August 6, 2009 HEDGE fund giant GLG Partners yesterday revealed its losses narrowed in the second quarter of the year, as rebounding markets helped its level of assets under management soar. The London-based, New York-listed firm said its second-quarter loss narrowed to $24.4m (£14.6m), compared with a loss of $93.6m in the same quarter last year. This came [...]
Offshore rig market is still ailing August 6, 2009 Analysts at Evolution said yesterday there was no sign of recovery in the offshore rig market. The broker added in its research note that leading industry player Transocean said it expected to have 26 of its jack-up rigs, equivalent to 40 per cent of its fleet, idle by the end of the year compared to [...]
Palm Oil warns on high raw price August 6, 2009 Palm oil producer New Britain Palm Oil expects higher raw material prices and new refining capacity to help to drive growth, it said yesterday, after reporting a sharp drop in first-half profit. The company said the price of palm oil, a cheap vegetable oil used for both food and fuel, had recovered to around $700 [...]
UK braced for postal strikes August 6, 2009 Postal workers will be balloted next month over whether to go on national strike, while thousands of Royal Mail staff will take part in industrial action against job cuts for three days from today, a union said yesterday. Royal Mail criticised the plans for a national strike, saying it would disrupt customers.
SEC and Bank of America fail to get approval for settlement from US judge August 6, 2009 A US federal judge has refused to approve Monday’s settlement between the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Bank of America (BoA) related to the acquisition of Merrill Lynch. Judge Jed Rakoff of the federal district court in Manhattan said it may be unfair to the public to accept the settlement, which would resolve [...]
Gruppo Campari profits cheer August 6, 2009 Gruppo Campari, the Italian distiller known for its bittersweet red aperitif, yesterday reported a 0.5 per cent rise in half-year pre-tax profits to ?60.1m (£50.8m). Sales rose 2.5 per cent to ?441.8m and the group said it outperformed the market in key regions. Sales in Campari and other spirits, which make up the bulk of [...]
Construction orders rise August 6, 2009 British construction orders rose 18 per cent in the second quarter of 2009 compared with the previous three months, although they were still down 21 per cent on the year, according to official data. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics underlined hopes that the hard-hit construction sector would be less of a [...]
DTZ wins Shell property contract August 6, 2009 DTZ, a leading global real estate adviser, yesterday won a contract with Shell International Petroleum to undertake property management services at around 5,000 retail sites in 11 countries across North America and Asia Pacific. The appointment is the biggest outsourcing project in the oil and gas sector this year. David Jones, from DTZ’s Occupier Services [...]
Profit falls at Zurich as new chief named August 6, 2009 SWISS insurance company Zurich Financial Services has announced the appointment of Martin Senn as chief executive, after revealing first-half profits had fallen 53 per cent compared with last year. Senn, who is currently Zurich’s acting chief investment officer, will succeed James Schiro, who will retire on 31 December. “Martin is an engaging, thoughtful and results-oriented [...]
Twitter under cyber attack August 6, 2009 MICRO-BLOGGING network Twitter was disabled for two hours yesterday in what appeared to be a malicious attack caused by thousands of remote-controlled PCs. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said on Twitter’s blog that the site was the victim of a denial-of-service attack, a technique in which hackers overwhelm a website’s servers with communications requests. “We are [...]
