Why Osborne won’t be saying sorry June 14, 2010 SORRY always seems to be the hardest word. That didn’t stop Alistair Darling demanding an apology from his successor yesterday. The former chancellor feels vindicated now the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has produced forecasts for public borrowing which are lower than the ones he unveiled in March. Sir Alan Budd, the OBR’s interim head, [...]
Cowdery eyes AXA synergies June 14, 2010 RESOLUTION will need to extract annual cost savings of more than £500m from AXA UK to make its takeover of the French behemoth’s British life and pensions business worthwhile, the investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted yesterday. Shares in Resolution, entrepreneur Clive Cowdery’s insurance consolidation project, were suspended after it confirmed its intention to pay £2.75bn [...]
Vantis shares suspended as crisis deepens June 14, 2010 VANTIS, the troubled accountancy outfit, is preparing a fire sale of its assets unless it can find an investor with a “wad of cash” to help pay down its £54m debt pile. The Aim-listed firm tumbled deeper into crisis yesterday when its shares were suspended due to doubts over its ability to continue operating. In [...]
When going public does not work out June 14, 2010 THE high-profile problems suffered by Vantis as a listed entity could deter other professional service companies from joining the public market, experts warned yesterday. Vantis’ share price has been hammered in the past year as doubts over its largest project liquidating Sir Allen Stanford’s assets, reputational issues to do with an HMRC probe into two [...]
Ex-Prudential executive to join the FSA June 14, 2010 LONG-time Prudential executive Tom Boardman has agreed to join the Financial Services Authority (FSA) as a senior adviser, responsible for overseeing life insurance regulation. Boardman until recently held the position of director of retirement strategy and innovation at the Pru. And in March this year, he was named to step up as a board director [...]
TfL bought out of Shard to make way for richer tenants June 14, 2010 TRANSPORT for London (TfL) has accepted a multi-million pound payment in exchange for abandoning plans to move into the Shard of Glass development near London Bridge in 2012. The building’s owners, Sellar Property and the Qatar Central Bank, bought back TfL’s lease to allow them to cash in on rising rent prices in the capital. [...]
Aero Inventory creditors to get 1p in £1 June 14, 2010 FRUSTRATED creditors of collapsed airline Aero Inventory are likely to be able to claw back just 1.1p in every pound owed to them by the company, administrators KPMG have revealed. A progress report by KPMG– which has so far racked up £8.7m in administration fees while attempting to root out the finer details of Aero’s [...]
Gates nuclear start-up raises $35m June 14, 2010 TerraPower, a nuclear energy start-up backed by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, has raised $35m (£23.7m) in a new round of funding to aid the development of a reactor fuelled by nuclear waste. Concerns about global warming and efforts to reduce carbon emissions have sparked renewed interest in nuclear energy as a clean fuel, but the [...]
Japanese factories optimistic June 14, 2010 Optimism among big Japanese manufacturers has grown in the past three months. The results suggest manufacturers have shaken off fears of the euro crisis and a strengthening yen, according to a survey by the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet Office’s Economic and the Social Research Institute.
Brit investors discuss Apollo June 14, 2010 SHARES in Brit Insurance rose a further 5.7 per cent to 930p yesterday as management held talks with investors over their rejection of a £785m offer from US group Apollo. Although Brit Insurance’s largest shareholders – including Schroders, Third Avenue and Deutsche Bank – back the board’s decision to turn down the private equity player’s [...]
