Weir drops offer for Ludowici March 14, 2012 WEIR shares jumped 2.6 per cent yesterday after it ended its pursuit of Australian machinery maker Ludowici. The FTSE 100 engineering group, which last month had its A$10 a share bid trumped by Danish rival FLSmidth, said yesterday it would make no further offer and had withdrawn from the race. Its offer lapsed in February [...]
Mitie climbs most in three years on Lloyds work win March 14, 2012 SHARES in support services group Mitie leaped as much as 8.5 per cent during trading yesterday after it said it was the preferred bidder for a contract with Lloyds Banking Group. The contract news – which would see the winning bidder provide integrated facilities and energy management for the entire Lloyds branch network and offices [...]
Antofagasta cuts dividend March 14, 2012 ANTOFAGASTA cut back on dividends yesterday to spend more on a new generation of growth projects, a shift that the copper miner said was also behind the abrupt departure last week of its long-standing chief executive. The Chilean miner disappointed market hopes for another bumper payout, announcing a full year dividend of less than half [...]
Rusal chairman quits the firm March 14, 2012 RUSSIAN billionaire Viktor Vekselberg quit yesterday as chairman of the world’s largest aluminium producer, UC Rusal, saying the heavily indebted company was in deep crisis after a long battle with rival oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Vekselberg’s exit widens a rift with controlling shareholder Deripaska, who had sought to build a Russian metals and mining business on [...]
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE OUTLOOK FOR G4S? March 14, 2012 JONATHAN JACKSON KILLIK & CO 2012 will see G4S benefit from the Olympic Games … Recent contract wins and extensions are expected to drive further top line growth, but following today’s guidance on borrowing costs, we would expect to see some modest downgrades to consensus earnings estimates. ROBERT MORTON INVESTEC Overall the group achieved a [...]
TARGETS EXCEEDED AS WE DRAW TO A CLOSE DEBUT CHARITY APPEAL March 14, 2012 WHEN a group of us sat down to dinner with Princess Anne last autumn to discuss this newspaper’s first-ever charity appeal, City A.M. managing director Lawson Muncaster set an initial financial target of £250,000, an amount that seemed to those present to be both ambitious and stretching. Now, as we close proceedings, we are delighted [...]
Credit Suisse banker hit by £210,000 fine March 14, 2012 THE FINANCIAL Services Authority (FSA) has fined Nicholas Kyprios, head of European credit sales at Credit Suisse in London, £210,000 for improper market conduct in disclosing client confidential information ahead of a significant bond issue in November 2009. The regulator’s fine follows on closely from a series of punishments handed out to a number of [...]
BofA Merrill Lynch moves to boost weakened broking unit March 14, 2012 SIMON Mackenzie-Smith, who has been drafted in to reinforce Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s battered UK corporate broking unit, has hired Peter Luck from UBS as he strives to retain the bank’s long list of clients following a raft of executive departures. Luck will be a senior player in the team at Merrill Lynch, which [...]
Lloyds and RBS make job culls March 14, 2012 LLOYDS and RBS have implemented around 1,900 job cuts in the UK as part of the headcount slashes they both announced last year. The news prompted calls by Unite the union for the government to intervene to prevent the job losses. Unite’s David Fleming said: “How can there be any justification for the government not [...]
FSA warns City against rip-offs March 14, 2012 FINANCIAL firms must work harder to align their business models with the interests of customers rather than pursuing “aggressive” approaches that could result in mis-selling, the FSA has said. In its assessment of the risks facing consumers, the City watchdog said that increasing complexity of products and cost-cutting has increased the risk of customers being [...]
