Evercore brought in to sell failing BusinessWeek July 14, 2009 MCGRAW-HILL has hired boutique investment bank Evercore Partners to find it a buyer for its loss-making BusinessWeek magazine, according to sources close to the company. BusinessWeek occupies a niche that includes titles such as Forbes, Fortune and Money. Along with its peers, it has suffered a precipitous drop in ad revenue, in part because of [...]
IASB proposing new fair value rule in wake of crisis July 14, 2009 THE International Accounting Standards Board ( IASB ) yesterday proposed to simplify a key valuation rule that European Union finance ministers have blamed for amplifying the financial crisis. The Group of 20 (G20) industrialised and emerging market countries agreed in April that the fair value rule should be revised to make company statements clearer for [...]
Thomson Reuters in talks with Breakingviews site July 14, 2009 THOMSON Reuters, the financial information service, is in takeover talks with Breakingviews.com, the financial analysis company. Breakingviews, which was founded by former Financial Times journalist Hugo Dixon nine years ago, has been expanding rapidly, investing heavily in New York and the far east. It is said to be profitable in Europe but loss-making outside Europe [...]
BA considers a fundraising July 14, 2009 CASH-strapped airline British Airways (BA) said it was exploring options to raise funds yesterday, as the firm’s directors faced the wrath of its shareholders over controversial cost-cutting plans. Chairman Martin Broughton said at the company’s annual meeting that BA was considering a convertible bond issue as a way of raising cash, while chief executive Willie [...]
RHJ plans offer of 300m for a stake in Opel July 14, 2009 RHJ INTERNATIONAL, a rival bidder to frontrunner Magna for German carmaker Opel, is planning to offer around €300m (£256.9m) for a stake of just over 50 per cent in the group, it emerged yesterday. RHJ’s bid comes in below the €660m that Beijing Automotive (BAIC) intends to invest for a 51 per cent stake in [...]
CITY VIEWS: WOULD GOLDMAN SACHS BE RIGHT TO RETURN TO BIG BONUSES? July 14, 2009 GARY FIELD CORNHILL FX“It certainly goes against the Obama administration’s recent sentiments. But as a business that is trying to make money and move forward, they need to keep hold of their best staff if they want to continue with the same degree of success.”GRAEME STEPHEN HEDGE FUND“If they’ve paid their bailout money back then [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: DOES BRITVIC’S TRADING UPDATE QUENCH YOUR THIRST? July 14, 2009 SIMON HALES NUMISGood weather conditions have helped market growth, especially in June, but importantly Britvic continues to significantly outperform the market in Great Britain. Ireland has deteriorated but the cost savings programme remains on track. Ireland remains a relatively small part of the business, but it will become increasingly part of the company. We hope [...]
Markit to be investigated in CDS probe July 14, 2009 THE US Justice Department (DoJ) has contacted London-based data provider Markit in connection with a probe into the credit default swap (CDS) market. A spokesman for Markit said the company, which is majority-owned by Wall Street banks, had “been informed of an investigation by the Department of Justice into the credit-derivatives and related markets”. “We [...]
Let banks fail, says US investment sage July 14, 2009 OUTSPOKEN US investor Jim Rogers says banks should have been left to go bankrupt. Rogers, who made his fortune alongside well-known speculator George Soros, said that while he did not begrudge banks now making a profit, they should not have received government bailouts to save them. Speaking as Goldman Sachs – who received massive state [...]
Solvency II will hit UK insurers July 14, 2009 Most British insurers expect to spend £500,000 complying with new European Union solvency rules, according to a survey by accountants BDO Stoy Hayward. It found 61 per cent of respondents put the cost of complying with the so-called Solvency II regime at £500,000 while 19 percent predicted costs in excess of £1m. Solvency II, scheduled [...]
