SocGen sees profits slide as bad debts mount, but investment banking thrives August 5, 2009 SOCIETE Générale (SocGen) suffered a 52 per cent decline in net profit, the French bank said yesterday, as losses on bad loans mounted and it wrote down its derivatives holdings. France’s second largest bank, posted profits of €309m (£269m) for the quarter, down from €644m in the same period of last year, despite revenue rising [...]
Rising loan losses plunge Allied Irish into the red August 5, 2009 ALLIED Irish Bank swung to a pre-tax loss in the first half of the year, as it made a provision of €2.37bn (£2bn) for potential loan losses. The bank lost €872m in the first half, compared to a €1.28bn profit earned in the first half of 2008. The bad debt charge of €2.37bn represented 3.6 [...]
Standard Life profits plunge August 5, 2009 STANDARD Life yesterday admitted it has joined the ranks of insurers struggling in the recession, stating its pre-tax profits were down 86 per cent in the first half as consumers cut their pension savings. The group said markets remained “challenging”, as it unveiled an underlying pre-tax profit drop from £345m in the first half of 2008 [...]
Old Mutual earnings dive as new business is hard to find August 5, 2009 OLD MUTUAL, the insurer listed jointly in the UK and South Africa, reported a bigger-than-expected drop in statutory profits yesterday, despite making improvements at its troubled US life business. South Africa’s largest insurer said its earnings were boosted by investment returns from its US bond portfolio, offsetting weakness in Europe and South African arm Nedbank. [...]
IS LLOYDS BANKING GROUP NOW OVER THE WORST OF ITS WOES? August 5, 2009 SANDY CHEN PANMURE GORDONAlthough management expects impairment to abate in the second half of 2009, this is not usually what happens in the trough before a recession. We expect that book value of equity per share will continue to be eroded by further losses. We are comfortable with our full-year forecast of -35p earnings per [...]
WHAT LIES BEHIND THE PROFIT FALLS AT STANDARD LIFE? August 5, 2009 BARRIE CORNES PANMURE GORDON“Standard Life has reported a slightly disappointing set of first-half figures. The miss on statutory profitability stems from lower management charges, Canadian property and other assets on its balance sheet. We maintain our “Hold” recommendation.” DUNCAN HALL FINNCAP“The statutory reporting method does tend to depress profits. The general feeling is that Standard [...]
Small but perfectly formed August 4, 2009 THE FACTS:MINI JCW CONVERTIBLE6-SPEEDMANUAL PRICE: £23,4700-62MPH: 6.9secsTOP SPEED: 146mph (limited)CO2 G/KM: 169g/kmMPG COMBINED: 39.8 THE Met office came in for flak last week after admitting its forecast for a “barbecue summer” was just a little wide of the mark. Darn that jet stream. Well, I’ve come to learn during my road-testing years that waiting for [...]
A drop in stocks and a rise in QE will undermine sterling’s rally August 4, 2009 IN THE face of a ballooning fiscal deficit, quantitative easing and the deepest recession since the Second World War, sterling rose to a nine-month high against the dollar of $1.7005 in Asian trading yesterday morning. And against the euro, it is just shy of the June highs of €0.8426. It’s hard to believe that as [...]
OPTIMISM IN THE POUND IS MISPLACED August 4, 2009 BORIS SCHLOSSBERGDIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT BY ANY reasonable measure the recent rally in the pound appears to be overdone. The UK economy is still in the midst of the worst recession in the post-war era. The UK fiscal budget deficit is projected to exceed 12 per cent of GDP – the highest among all [...]
The firm that has risen above the Magic Circle August 4, 2009 THE Magic Circle model is in need of a re-engineering.” In light of recent revelations about the impact of the economic downturn on City law firms, that statement might not qualify as controversial. However, it’s noteworthy because it is a view espoused by Nigel Knowles, co-chief executive of DLA Piper, the newly-anointed “biggest law firm [...]
