Citigroup profit falls July 16, 2012 Citigroup said second quarter profits dropped as it lost money on the sale of a stake in a Turkish bank and suffered from the drag of its troubled assets left over from the 2007-2008 credit crisis. Net income fell to $2.9 billion (£1.8bn), or 95 cents per share, from $3.34 billion, or $1.09 a share, [...]
PTT again extends Cove off deadline July 16, 2012 Thai oil firm PTT Exploration & Production has again extended its offer for gas explorer Cove Energy, putting the ball back in the court of rival suitor Shell which must decide imminently whether to up its bid. PTT’s third extension of the deadline for investors to accept its $1.9bn (£1.22bn) offer comes as investors wait [...]
Eurozone inflation eases July 16, 2012 A sharp fall in energy prices helped cool consumer prices in the eurozone in June and gave the European Central Bank space to cut interest rates this month to try to revive the economy, but stagnant imports highlighted the depth of the downturn. Consumer inflation in the 17-nation euro zone was 2.4 per cent in [...]
Government confirms £9.4bn rail package July 16, 2012 The government on Monday announced a £9.4bn railway infrastructure investment package. The package covers the period between 2014 and 2019 and includes 4.2bn of new projects, Britain’s transport department said in a statement. The new projects include a passenger and freight corridor linking the east and west midlands and Yorkshire with the south of England, [...]
G4S leads FTSE lower July 16, 2012 The FTSE 100 was led down by security giant G4S in early trading as the company’s failure to fulfil an Olympic security contract continued to take its toll. G4S retreated by more than eight per cent this morning as chief executive Nick Buckles came under increasing pressure over the fiasco. The world’s second-largest private sector [...]
Billionaires seek sale of TNK-BP July 16, 2012 The billionaire co-owners of Anglo-Russian oil venture TNK-BP would be willing to sell their stake to British oil major BP for cash and stock to put an end to a bitter shareholder conflict. That was the position presented by Mikhail Fridman, one of the quartet of investors who own half of Russia’s third-largest oil company [...]
National Grid slams energy regulator July 16, 2012 National Grid, Britain’s biggest energy distributor, said proposals by the UK regulator Ofgem to fund the upgrade of the country’s gas and electricity network were flawed. National Grid said that Ofgem’s £22bn initial plan to make Britain’s transmission networks more sustainable differed substantially from its own business plan. “We believe that these initial proposals will [...]
PTT extends Cove offer for third time July 16, 2012 Thai oil firm PTT Exploration and Production extended for a third time the deadline for investors to accept its $1.9bn (£1.2bn) offer for gas explorer Cove Energy on Monday, as the battle with rival suitor Shell nears a conclusion. Analysts had expected PTT to extend its offer as investors wait to see what Shell will [...]
JP Morgan loses $4bn on trades July 13, 2012 JP Morgan Chase & Co, the biggest US bank, posted $4.4bn of losses from its “London Whale” trades, but also said some of its traders might have tried to conceal bad credit bets in the first quarter. The disclosure was the first indication the bank has made that the problems in its Chief Investment Office [...]
UK construction slumps in May July 13, 2012 British firms built less in May despite an extra working day, official data showed on Friday. Construction output dropped 6.3 per cent in the month, non-seasonably adjusted data from the Office for National Statistics showed. Firms failed to benefit from an extra working day in May as a public holiday usually held at the end [...]
