Vigil for victims of Pakistan school murders December 16, 2014 A vigil was held last night by Pakistani female activists of the Muttahida Qaumi movement in memory of the victims of a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar. At least 141 people, most of them children, were killed after attackers stormed the army-run school.
Lastminute.com sold for £76m to Swiss travel firm December 16, 2014 TRAVEL site Lastminute.com, founded at the height of the dot.com boom in 1998, has been sold to Bravofly Rumbo Group in a £76m deal. The sale will see current owner, US-based Sabre, swallow a big loss, having bought the holiday site for £577m in 2005. Swiss company Bravofly made the winning bid yesterday, following a [...]
Co-operative Bank to speed up toxic loans sell off after failing Bank of England stress tests December 16, 2014 The Co-operative Bank was the only lender to fail the Bank of England’s stress tests yesterday. As a result, it is accelerating its plan to sell off or run down a £6.6bn book of bad loans from the pre-crash era. Eight high street institutions’ finances were tested to see how they would cope with a hypothetical [...]
Challengers could get a level playing field on capital rules December 16, 2014 BIG BANKS could face tighter controls on their in-house calculations of the riskiness of their loans and the size of their capital buffers, the Bank of England warned yesterday. Currently, big banks can use historic data to calculate the risk weights applicable to their assets. By contrast, smaller banks must use a formula set out by [...]
Chatting to the Queen about the smartphone era December 16, 2014 The boss of Imagination tells Ollie Gordon how he discussed tech with Elizabeth II IT WASN’T something I was expecting, it was hugely humbling,” says Sir Hossein Yassaie of the knighthood he received from the Queen in the New Year’s Honours list last year in recognition of his services to technology and innovation. Yassaie, the [...]
Cerberus takes a £2.3bn bite of property loans December 16, 2014 AMERICAN private equity giant Cerberus has agreed to buy two portfolios of distressed property loans for £2.3bn as it looks to up its exposure to the UK and Irish markets, it emerged yesterday. Cerberus struck deals to take on a £1.2bn portfolio of commercial property loans from National Australia Bank and a £1.1bn portfolio of [...]
Jefferies to sell the commodity derivatives arm it bought in 2011 December 16, 2014 JEFFERIES is looking for buyers for Bache, its troubled commodity futures business, the investment bank said yesterday as it reported losses in the fourth quarter. The broking unit has been hit by tougher regulation and competition from electronic trading facilities. Jefferies recorded a loss of $92m (£58m) in the three months to 30 November, compared [...]
AA on track despite a fall in members December 16, 2014 Car repair business the AA has reported revenue of £245m for its subsidiary AA Intermediate Co in the three months to 31 October, narrowly up from £244m in the same period of last year. The business also posted profit before tax of £35.4m, compared with £24.7m in the third quarter of 2013. For the year [...]
Tesco quarterly sales show sign of turn around following profit warning December 16, 2014 Tesco has enjoyed its best quarterly sales performance since June, according to the latest industry data, giving investors in the troubled supermarket chain some reason to cheer following last week’s profit warning. Sales fell by 2.7 per cent in the 12 weeks to 7 December, a slowdown on the 3.7 per cent decline recorded in [...]
Wonga cuts interest rates and fees as FCA clamps down December 16, 2014 Wonga is capping interest rates on its loans at 0.8 per cent per day and is limiting the amount of debt its borrowers can rack up, the troubled payday lender announced yesterday. The move comes in response to new rules from City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Its crackdown on the sector is expected to [...]
