ECB’s long-term bank loans to top €1 trillion January 30, 2012 THE EUROPEAN Central Bank (ECB) is likely to see demand for its three-year loans rise to nearly €1 trillion (£840bn) at its next auction, according to Credit Suisse analysts. They suggest that with looser collateral requirements coming into effect for the next sale of long-term money, banks will take out €500bn in loans in addition [...]
Alpha Bank casts doubt on its EFG Eurobank merger January 30, 2012 COMPLETION of Greece’s largest bank merger in decades was thrown into doubt yesterday after Alpha Bank said it needs to assess the impact of the country’s revised sovereign debt swap scheme before it can join with EFG Eurobank. Alpha and EFG Eurobank had agreed in August to create Greece’s biggest bank, to better cope with [...]
Shutdown of City protest sparks arrests January 30, 2012 ANGRY scenes erupted yesterday as bailiffs evicted protesters from two City bank offices. A 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and another man was held and later released. Activists, including some from Occupy London, were removed in the early hours from the so-called Earl Street Community Centre, which is believed to be [...]
RBS political risk too much for investors January 30, 2012 INVESTORS are refusing to hold shares in RBS because they see it as too politically risky, a view compounded by chief executive Stephen Hester’s decision to waive his £1m bonus due to pressure from politicians, according to a banking source. RBS’s shares lost 3.5 per cent, or £575m, yesterday, dwarfing the £1m given up by [...]
MPs slam FSA as incompetent on ABN Amro January 30, 2012 MPS ACCUSED the FSA of being “wildly dysfunctional” in a hearing with its chief executive yesterday, who blamed his predecessor for being too cowardly to stop RBS from buying ABN Amro. At a session held by the Treasury Select Committee, FSA chief Hector Sants was pressed repeatedly on why he did not stop the disastrous [...]
Hester’s focus must be banking, not bonuses January 30, 2012 AS THE debate over Stephen Hester’s RBS bonus continues, it is easy to forget the increasingly powerless chief executive has a business to run. One of the most crucial items on the agenda is the restructuring of the investment bank, which chancellor George Osborne effectively called for in December when he said there would be [...]
Banks fight to advise on Facebook IPO January 30, 2012 THE WINNER in the race to advise Facebook through its highly-anticipated public offering could earn an exceptional low of one per cent of gross proceeds for managing the flotation. In their eagerness to bag the deal, contenders including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs could agree to underwrite the IPO for a fraction of the typical [...]
How to answer the $100bn question January 30, 2012 IT’S the $80bn question, or maybe even the $100bn question: just how much is Facebook worth? To find the answer, you would normally try to value the company using traditional multiples – price to sales, price to earnings and so on – and you would quickly find out that the valuations being discussed look ridiculously [...]
Apple accounts for a quarter of smartphones shipped globally January 30, 2012 APPLE has regained its place at the top of the global smartphone shipments table with almost a quarter of the market share, booting Samsung to second place, according to Juniper Research. Of the 149m smartphones shipped in the fourth quarter, 37m were iPhones, while Samsung followed a few million handset shipments behind. Juniper puts Apple’s [...]
Bingo! Rank plays Gala card January 30, 2012 RANK Group yesterday confirmed it is “in discussions” with Gala Coral Group about a potential £250m acquisition of Gala’s casinos business. The terms of any acquisition have not yet been finalised, stated Rank, and there is no certainty that any transaction will occur. A spokesperson for Rank declined to confirm when talks between the parties [...]
