RBS and other UK banks facing first quarter earnings woe after US lenders posted a sharp drop in profit April 25, 2016 British banks are set to post first quarter profits this week that are weighed down by the rising risk of Brexit, bad debt, and poor investment banking performance. The difficult period has already dragged down profits at some the biggest US banks, though they largely managed to beat low estimates. Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of [...]
Turkey releases Polly Peck fraudster Asil Nadir after extradition from UK April 24, 2016 Turkish Cypriot businessman Asil Nadir has been released in Turkey just one night after he was returned there to complete his sentence. Nadir, who was jailed in the UK in 2012 for stealing millions from his own business empire, was convicted of 10 counts of theft £28.6m between 1987 and 1990 from textiles company Polly Peck International [...]
Buyout firm Carlyle in talks with former Barclay’s CEO Bob Diamond for Africa arm bid April 24, 2016 Carlyle, the US buyout group, is in early stage talks with one of Bob Diamond’s investment vehicles over a bid for Barclays Africa. Diamond, who resigned as Barclays’ chief executive amid the Libor scandal, will use his New York-based investment vehicle, Atlas Merchant Capital, to jointly fundraise with Carlyle. Barclays announced last month it would [...]
WANdisco hopes for government contracts as turnaround takes hold April 24, 2016 Software developer WANdisco hopes to pick up a raft of government contracts this year as its strategic turnaround takes hold. While no government contracts have been secured yet, WANdisco is planning to pounce on Whitehall plans to move data from physical servers to cloud based storage. The company has recently bagged contracts with two of [...]
Business vote to leave the EU stronger than thought, YouGov poll finds April 21, 2016 The business vote for the UK to remain in the European Union is far more divided that many had previously thought, according to research from pollsters YouGov. It showed that 40 per cent of executives surveyed think the UK would be better off out of the trading bloc, with 49 per cent in favour of staying in and 11 [...]
General Motors doubles profit in the first quarter, turbo charged by cheap petrol and easy access to credit April 21, 2016 General Motors (GM) has reported profit more than doubled to $2bn (£1.4bn), or $1.24 a share, in the first quarter of 2016. Revenue for the first three months of the year climbed by 4.5 per cent to $37.3bn. The bottom line figures easily beat out analyst estimates of $1.01 per share on revenue of $35.4bn. Cheap petrol and consumers' [...]
Government considers taking a 25 per cent stake in Tata Steel’s UK business and reveals plans for millions of pounds’ worth of financial support to buyers April 21, 2016 The government has said it would be willing to take a 25 per cent stake in any rescue of Tata Steel’s UK operations and will be providing debt finance to potential buyers. A package of support worth hundreds of millions of pounds will be made available. The announcement follows a second meeting between business secretary Sajid Javid [...]
BNY Mellon joins other US banks in beating expectations in its first quarter April 21, 2016 Bank of New York Mellon has posted a five per cent increase in first-quarter profit due to heavy cost cutting and the US interest rate hike in December. Profit rose to $804m (£557m), or 73 cents a share, from $766m, or 67 cents, a year earlier. Analysts were expecting earnings of 67 cents a share, according to a Bloomberg poll. Total revenue [...]
Cabinet Office is making threats to silence pro-Brexit businesses ahead of June referendum, claims Vote Leave campaign director Dominic Cummings April 20, 2016 UK businesses are being prevented from coming out in support of a British exit from the European Union due to threats from Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, it was claimed today by Vote Leave’s campaign director Dominic Cummings. The allegations were made by Cummings during a three-hour grilling by the influential Treasury select committee, chaired by MP Andrew Tyrie. [...]
What to expect from TSB’s latest results tomorrow morning, one year on from Sabadell’s takeover April 20, 2016 TSB, the challenger bank snapped up last year by Spain's Banco Sabadell for £1.7bn after being carved out of Lloyds Banking Group in 2014, will report its first quarter results tomorrow morning. Earlier this year TSB boasted that more than 1,000 new customers were joining it each day, and that it was beating its own target for customers switching [...]
