Ex-Credit Suisse staff probed January 31, 2012 Authorities are preparing to charge former Credit Suisse Group employees with criminal and civil fraud related to write-downs on subprime mortgage derivatives in 2008, according to sources familiar with the matter. Credit Suisse will not be charged in the matter being investigated by federal prosecutors and the SEC, the sources said. The investigation stems from [...]
UN states urge action over Syria January 31, 2012 Arab and Western states yesterday urged the UN Security Council to quickly call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside as his government’s forces reasserted control of Damascus suburbs after beating back rebels at the gates of the capital. Foreign secretary William Hague made it clear that the resolution “does not call for military [...]
FSA imposes £3m fine – but police in cold January 31, 2012 THE FORMER UK boss of private equity firm JC Flowers, who was yesterday handed a £2.87m fine by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), narrowly escaped a criminal trial, City A.M. has learnt. Sources in the City of London Police said “the force was very keen to take this on” but that JC Flowers appeared reluctant [...]
Bell sounds out Chime’s public relations division January 31, 2012 LORD Bell is considering a management buyout of parts of Chime, the marketing group which he chairs. Margaret Thatcher’s former media guru, as well as Chime deputy chair Piers Pottinger and other executives, plan to buy some of Chime’s public relations businesses, the firm said. Chime, which provides services in public relations, advertising and sports [...]
BAE loses to Dassault over £7bn contract January 31, 2012 BAE Systems has been beaten in the race to secure an Indian government fighter jet contract by French manufacturer Dassault. The Dassault Rafale is understood to have been identified as preferred model for the contract, worth up to $11bn (£7bn), ahead of the Eurofighter Typhoon – in a major blow to UK manufacturing. The Typhoon [...]
Apple hires Dixons boss as retail chief January 31, 2012 APPLE has poached John Browett, the boss of Dixons Retail, to take charge of its burgeoning network of retail stores. He will join the US technology giant in April as senior vice president of retail, replacing Ron Johnson, who resigned from Apple last November to join the US department store chain JC Penney as chief [...]
California calls for customer expert January 31, 2012 It has been a turbulent few years for John Browett since taking over the reins as Dixons’ chief executive in 2007. No sooner was he poached from Tesco – where he was in charge of building the supermarket’s fast-growing online business– than the recession hit and Browett was faced with a battle to secure the [...]
A new challenge for Browett January 31, 2012 WE learnt yesterday that Apple had poached John Browett, former chief executive of Dixons, to head their worldwide retail operations. A look at YouGov’s BrandIndex, which tracks public perception of brands, suggests that this could be a good move for both Apple and Browett. Apple have secured themselves a man who kept Dixons as the [...]
Santander takes €1.7bn property hit January 31, 2012 A MASSIVE write-down on its Spanish property portfolio wiped out Santander’s profits in the fourth quarter of last year, the bank revealed in full-year results yesterday. The lender was forced to make a net provision of €1.67bn due to the plunging value of its assets, mostly in Spanish real estate. That took its bottom line [...]
Ocado cuts its losses by 80 per cent and says its warehouse problems are solved January 31, 2012 OCADO said warehousing problems that prompted it to issue a profit warning last month were largely solved as the online grocer posted a pre-tax loss of £2.4m for the year to the end of November 2011. In its second set of preliminary results since its flotation in 2010, Ocado said it had cut its losses [...]
