Portugal set to receive next bailout tranche February 29, 2012 PORTUGAL passed the third review by the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) of its €78bn (£66bn) bailout programme yesterday, and the country’s finance minister said it would not need a second rescue like Greece. But the lenders warned that Portugal’s economic slump will deepen this year, and urged more reforms. Inspectors recommended the bailout’s [...]
Irish Life raises loan hit forecast February 29, 2012 IRISH Life and Permanent said it trebled its loan impairment provisions to €1.4bn last year, blaming the poor state of the Irish property market. The bank said it now thinks house prices fell 55 per cent from peak to trough, worse than its earlier estimate of 43 per cent. And a “significant increase” of mortgages [...]
Lawyers slam retrospective Barclays tax February 29, 2012 LAWYERS yesterday railed against the retrospective £100m tax bill handed to Barclays bank by HMRC this week, saying it could set a worrying precedent. Barclays faces paying over £100m to the Treasury after the government changed the law to close a tax loophole. The bank was allegedly exploiting a rule that says profit arising from [...]
Santander to take control of Kredyt Bank in Poland February 29, 2012 THE Eurozone’s biggest bank Santander is doubling its bet on Poland, Europe’s most resilient economy, by taking over a unit of Belgian lender KBC to create a business worth about €5bn (£4.24bn). Spain’s Santander will combine KBC’s Kredyt Bank with Bank Zachodni WBK to turn the unit it bought just last year into Poland’s number [...]
Greece open to offers for state gas company DEPA February 29, 2012 Greece has invited bids for state-owned gas company DEPA, as it moves ahead with a privatisation programme targeted to raise 19 billion euros (£16bn) by 2015. According to an offer document published on Wednesday, the government is considering a “bundled” sale of DEPA, combining its wholesale, trading and gas supply business as well as its [...]
Lloyds gets the most complaints February 29, 2012 PART-NATIONALISED bank Lloyds received the most complaints among UK financial firms in the second-half of last year, data from the Financial Ombudsman showed yesterday. The Ombudsman said the various operations within Lloyds Banking Group – including the likes of Bank of Scotland and Halifax – got 20,310 complaints from July to December last year. Barclays [...]
Deutsche set for €2bn asset deal February 29, 2012 DEUTSCHE Bank has said it is talking exclusively to privately held US financial services firm Guggenheim Partners over the sale of a big chunk of its asset management businesses. Germany’s biggest lender declined to give financial details but it is expected to raise between €1.5bn (£1.27bn) and €2bn from the deal. The businesses up for [...]
Tesco keeps on losing share to cut price rivals February 29, 2012 LEADING supermarket Tesco failed to increase sales as quickly as its rivals in the last 12 weeks, data out yesterday showed, while leaked documents showed the Co-op is well behind its sales targets already this year. Tesco’s sales rose 2.5 per cent in the 12-week period ending 19 February, compared with the same period last [...]
Whitbread sees its hotel demand slow February 29, 2012 WHITBREAD has revealed a slowdown in fourth quarter sales at Premier Inn, the budget hotel chain, as consumers remained under pressure and demand for hotel rooms outside of the capital softened. The UK’s largest hotel and restaurant owner said like-for-like sales at Premier Inn fell 0.9 per cent in the 11 weeks to 16 February, [...]
Indian economic growth slowest for three years February 29, 2012 India’s economic growth slowed to its weakest annual pace in almost three years in the three months to December, as high interest rates and rising input costs constrained investment and manufacturing. Gross domestic product rose 6.1 per cent in October to December compared with a year earlier, a lower than expected increase, figures from the [...]
