EU plans to tighten rules on offshore oil drilling October 13, 2010 The European Commission will propose tougher rules on offshore oil and gas drilling in the first half of 2011, but will not demand a temporary halt to new drilling operations, the EU’s energy chief said yesterday. The plans are intended to guard against a repeat of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, [...]
Liberia seeks trial of UK national over carbon deal October 13, 2010 Liberia is seeking to prosecute a British citizen for bribery in a proposed carbon deal that would have given him control of a fifth of the West African country’s rainforests, the government said yesterday. Liberia began investigating the accord to grant 400,000 hectares of rainforest to British firm Carbon Harvesting Corporation in July after governance [...]
Hedge fund growth begins to slow in 2010 October 13, 2010 GROWTH in hedge fund assets slowed during the first half of 2010, climbing two per cent to reach $1.87 trillion (£1.18 trillion). This was a marked slowdown from the second half of 2009, when the industry bounced back 10 per cent following the financial meltdown, according to data by HedgeFund Intelligence The incremental growth means [...]
State cuts to hit 50,000 firms October 13, 2010 More than 100,000 companies in Britain are in financial distress, with a combined debt pile of £58bn, according to insolvency group Begbies Traynor. The company’s Red Flag Alert report on troubled companies said around 50,000 business are likely to be hit by the government’s looming spending cuts. The report said construction, IT, recruitment and advertising [...]
SocGen to fight price-fixing fine October 13, 2010 Société Générale will challenge a fine by the French competition regulator for fixing the price of clearing cheques electronically. L’Autorite de la Concurrence fined the bank and 10 others a total of €384.9m (£338m) last month for colluding to charge unjustified fees on cheques and other interbank services when they switched to a new digital [...]
Lone Star eyes IKB bank sale October 13, 2010 Lone Star is getting ready to sell German bank IKB and could strike a deal in the first quarter of 2011, providing an opportunity for lenders to gain a foothold in Europe’s largest economy. Lone Star’s European head Bruno Scherrer told a German newspaper the US-based private equity house is getting ready to shop around [...]
SEC sets limits on derivatives industry in US October 13, 2010 THE top US securities regulator last night took its first stab at policing the $615 trillion (£387 trillion) over-the-counter derivatives market with a plan to mitigate conflicts of interests at venues that will handle the swaps. The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 5-0 to propose ownership limits on the swaps trading venues and clearinghouses, which [...]
FinnCap hires finance director October 13, 2010 SMALL CAP broker finnCap has appointed former fund manager Tom Hayward as its new finance director, as the next step in its development as an independent firm. FinnCap, led by chief executive Sam Smith and chaired by private equity veteran Jon Moulton, hired Hayward from Herald Investment Management, a fund management group specialising in the [...]
Autonomy wins contract from UK finance regulator October 13, 2010 Software group Autonomy said yesterday it had signed a major deal with a UK regulator, believed to be the Financial Services Authority. The group, whose share price fell after it revised its sales estimates down by three per cent last week, said it had entered into “a multi-million dollar agreement with a UK regulatory authority [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS October 13, 2010 ATKINS Brewin Dolphin has downgraded the design and engineering firm to “reduce” from “hold” with an unchanged target price of 675p, ahead of the government spending review this month. The broker believes that any upside from the firm’s recent acquisition of American peer PBSJ will be offset by spending cuts. Brewin sees scope for a [...]
