United Airlines continues its tie-up talks April 19, 2010 UNITED Airlines is continuing separate merger talks with US Airways and Continental Airlines. United is also discussing the option of deepening a three-way marketing alliance between the carriers if a merger is not agreed. Continental restarted merger talks with United last week, two years after walking away from a deal that was very nearly agreed. [...]
CITY VIEWS: HAVE THE AVIATION AUTHORITIES OVER-REACTED? April 19, 2010 RICHARD TAYLOR | WATKINS SYNDICATE “Yes they are over-reacting. The airlines are already doing test flights, which have been fine. The stoppage is disruptive to a large extent, and is slowing business down. Some companies are saying they might go bankrupt as a result.” JAMES SPENCER | ANGLO IRISH BANK “They have not over-reacted because [...]
Citi storms to biggest profit in three years April 19, 2010 THE US government is tipped to kick-start its sale of Citigroup shares soon, after the bank beat Wall Street expectations to nearly triple its profits in the first quarter. Citi’s stock climbed seven per cent to $4.88 on news the bank made $4.4bn (£2.9bn) in the three months to March, up from $1.6bn a year [...]
Citigroup April 19, 2010 IT IS hard to overstate the symbolic importance of Citigroup’s first quarter earnings, which have smashed analyst expectations. Of those banks that managed to survive the banking crisis, it was by far the biggest casualty. “On the brink” is a phrase that is used far too much in the wake of the near-meltdown – but [...]
Lawyers back Goldman on SEC disclosure April 19, 2010 LEGAL experts yesterday insisted that Goldman Sachs was justified in concealing from investors the first stages of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s probe into obscure credit derivative trades at the bank. Goldman came under fire at the weekend after it emerged the bank had known about the investigation months before fraud charges were officially filed [...]
Goldman goes hell for leather in defence of fraud charges… April 19, 2010 GOLDMAN Sachs threw down the gauntlet to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) long before it filed fraud charges on Friday, the bank’s initial written responses to the investigation have shown. Goldman countered the SEC claims in 60 pages of response documentation in September, when it warned the allegations are rife with “fatal deficiencies”. [...]
…as analyst warns the stage is set for a repeat of the financial system’s collapse April 19, 2010 A LEADING US bank analyst warned that the SEC’s fraud lawsuit against Goldman Sachs is paving the way for another financial crisis, just days after calling for executive heads to roll at the bank. Rochdale Securities analyst Dick Bove caused consternation at the weekend by suggesting Goldman chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and finance director David [...]
Scandal fuels legal cleanup April 19, 2010 THE case being brought against Goldman Sachs by the US securities watchdog will boost Democrat efforts to pass tough new laws against Wall Street, Washington insiders believe. The timing of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) fraud allegations is fortuitous for President Barack Obama, who will this week try to force an ambitious finance reform [...]
Wall Street titans fear further action from SEC April 19, 2010 WALL Street’s banking giants fear that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), fresh from hitting Goldman Sachs with a civil fraud charge, may soon move on to other targets. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi and UBS are the three leading players when it comes to issuance of the controversial collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), according [...]
WEE WILLIE BRUSHES UP ON BA’S PR STRATEGY April 19, 2010 THAT pesky cloud of Icelandic volcanic ash may have caused havoc among passengers and crippling losses to airlines, but at least there has been a silver lining for one man. “Wee” Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, has suffered something of a PR nightmare over the past year amid strikes and crisis-hit revenues, [...]
