Germany keeps focus on exports June 15, 2010 Germany has no intention of dropping its focus on exports to help boost the economies of its European Union partners, it said yesterday, despite adopting a conciliatory tone towards France on EU economic management. Ahead of this week’s European Union summit, chancellor Angela Merkel met France’s Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday and agreed that Europe needed [...]
Euro at two-week high June 15, 2010 The euro rallied to a two-week high against the dollar yesterday due to solid demand at European debt auctions soothed worries about the debt crisis. It rose 0.9 per cent to $1.2330.
SocGen rogue faked a name to cover bets June 15, 2010 FORMER Société Générale trader Jérôme Kerviel admitted creating a fake client called “Matt” to cover massive unauthorised bets with a broker yesterday. The 33-year-old told a court on the sixth day of his trial how he had lied to broker Moussa Bakir about the driven, rugby-loving “Matt”, who worked for a hedge fund, in response [...]
Sole bidder Santander makes £1.5bn pitch for RBS branches June 15, 2010 ROYAL Bank of Scotland is hoping to seal a £1.5bn sale of its 318 Williams & Glyn branches to Santander by the third quarter, a source said last night, as the Spanish bank tabled the only final-round bid. The deadline for offers was Monday. RBS, 83 per cent state-owned, is being forced to sell the [...]
Trio of efficiency experts drafted in to mobilise review of spending June 15, 2010 THE government has appointed cost-cutting stalwarts Sir Peter Gershon, Dr Martin Read and Lucy Neville-Rolfe to advise on tackling waste in public services, the Cabinet Office announced yesterday. The trio will form part of the Efficiency and Reform Group which is charged with finding savings in procurement, property and workforce costs. All three have advised [...]
Spice rejects £200m offer June 15, 2010 UTILITIES support firm Spice rejected a takeover bid by private equity group Cinven in May, the company said yesterday. Cinven announced the spurned bid after shares in Spice jumped seven per cent during trading yesterday. The offer of 56p per share took place on 24 May, a week before Spice disposed of its loss-making gas [...]
EasyJet locked in branding dispute with founder Stelios June 15, 2010 EASYJET launched its defence yesterday in front of a High Court judge in a branding dispute brought forward by founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. His lawyers have argued that the airline is no longer a low-cost carrier because of the added costs to passengers. Geoffrey Hobbs QC, who is representing easyJet in court, delivered his opening [...]
Cowdery takes £2bn AXA rights issue pitch to major shareholders June 15, 2010 RESOLUTION was in talks with its largest shareholders yesterday over the planned £2bn rights issue it will use to part-fund a swoop on AXA’s UK life and pensions business. Insurance entrepreneur Clive Cowdery’s team, led by former Lazard banker Jon Hack, is understood to be discussing a novel underwriting structure with investors including Aviva, Legal [...]
RALPH LAUREN PLANS 11M SHARE SALE June 15, 2010 POLO Ralph Lauren Corp chief executive Ralph Lauren (pictured) yesterday disclosed plans to sell more than one quarter of his holdings in the company he founded in a transaction that would net him hundreds of millions of dollars. Lauren intends to sell as many as 11.35m shares, according to a filing made on Monday with [...]
Boris wants more powers for City Hall June 15, 2010 MAYOR of London Boris Johnson yesterday unveiled plans to hand a large chunk of governmental powers over to City Hall, in a bid to increase the formal influence of his office in the capital. Johnson wants to fold the functions of the London Development Agency (LDA) and Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) into a new [...]
