Nadir boosted shares – trial January 24, 2012 ASIL Nadir used stolen money to boost the share price of Polly Peck International, buy a string of luxury properties across Britain and indulge his interest in horse racing, a court heard yesterday. The tycoon secretly bought shares in PPI, which pushed up the value of his own wealth, the Old Bailey was told. Prosecutor [...]
Why capital gains tax isn’t too low January 24, 2012 RARELY have I seen such a nauseating US presidential election. All the candidates are poor, especially on the Republican side; but it is what passes for debate that is truly pathetic. Particularly depressing has been the vitriol directed at Mitt Romney, one of the two top Republican candidates, for deriving much of his income through [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 24, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES WATCHDOG TO PROTECT IRRATIONAL INVESTORS Investors cannot be counted on to make rational choices so regulators need to “step into their footprints” and limit or ban the sale of potentially harmful products, the head of the UK’s new consumer protection watchdog said yesterday. In his first big interview since starting work last autumn, [...]
UniCredit plans bond sale January 24, 2012 ITALIAN bank UniCredit is looking to sell up to €25bn in covered bonds, hot on the heels of its €7.5bn rights issue to shore up its capital base, according to regulatory filings. UniCredit said in a prospectus filed with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange that the proceeds would be used “for general funding purposes of the [...]
Quake prompts Japanese deficit January 24, 2012 Japan logged an annual trade deficit in 2011 for the first time in 31 years, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday, as last year’s earthquake and tsunami, weak global demand and a strong yen battered exports. The trade deficit stood at 2.49 trillion yen (£20.5bn) in 2011, the first annual deficit since 1980. In December, [...]
FSA removed Sir Fred criticism January 24, 2012 The Financial Services Authority removed criticism of Sir Fred Goodwin’s banking experience from its final report into the failure of RBS, said Bill Knight, one of two experts reviewing the FSA’s inquiry, in an appearance before the Treasury Select Committee yesterday. “It is true that the references to Sir Fred were changed following Maxwellisation but [...]
IMF slashes its forecasts for growth January 24, 2012 THE EUROZONE crisis has entered a “perilous new phase” and is devastating confidence across the world, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday as it slashed its growth forecasts. Global economic growth is expected to come in at 3.3 per cent this year, lower than the four per cent the IMF predicted just a few [...]
French banks ratings cut as state backing weakens January 24, 2012 THREE major French banks saw their credit ratings downgraded by ratings agency Standard and Poor’s yesterday, less than two weeks after the country itself lost its coveted triple-A status. The long-term counterparty credit ratings of BPCE, Crédit Agricole Agricole and Société Générale were all chopped from “A plus” to “A.” “This is a direct consequence [...]
Markets lower on Greece and Hungary fears January 24, 2012 EUROPEAN stock markets lost ground yesterday as the shine came off a possible deal with Greece’s lenders. Leaders also threatened to remove Hungary’s EU funding over budgetary worries, while France kept campaigning to tax financial transactions. The FTSE 100 closed down 0.5 per cent, having hit a six-month high on Monday, while in Paris the [...]
McDonald’s to dish up 2,500 British jobs January 24, 2012 FAST food king McDonald’s is to create 2,500 jobs in Britain during 2012 after benefitting from a recession that has pushed customers towards its cheap meals. The American firm announced an 11 per cent rise in net income for the last three months of 2011 to $1.38bn (£886m) on the back of a 10 per [...]
