City AM interview Paul Fisher of the Bank of England February 23, 2012 Senior Bank of England official Paul Fisher was interviewed on Wednesday 22nd February 2012, by Allister Heath and Julian Harris from City A.M. The edited transcript is as follows: Paul, would you like to start with how you see the outlook at the moment? I think it continues to be a story where the outlook [...]
CBI factory orders index hits six-month high February 23, 2012 Britain’s main factory orders index rebounded in February to its highest level in six months, boosting hopes that the economy is on track for recovery, the CBI’s monthly industrial trends survey showed. The Confederation of British Industry survey’s total order book balance jumped to -3 from -16 in January, well above economists’ forecasts of a [...]
RBS spearheads banks’ rally on FTSE February 23, 2012 The FTSE staged a rally this morning spearheaded by banks as investors gave a positive reaction to RBS results. Markets yesterday had been dented by surging oil prices which triggered fears that world global growth could be hampered while data in the Eurozone suggested that the bloc could lurch into recession. Banking stocks jumped in [...]
BAT in £1.25bn buy back February 23, 2012 British American Tobacco , the world’s second-biggest cigarette maker, increased its share buyback to £1.25bn ($1.96 billion) after it raised prices and saw strong growth in emerging markets to help boost its annual earnings. The London-based maker of Kent, Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall cigarettes completed a share buyback of 750 million pounds in [...]
Credit Agricole posts record loss February 23, 2012 French bank Credit Agricole reported a record quarterly net loss of 3.07bn euros (£2.58bn), performing worse than expected as it was hit by the cost of shrinking its balance sheet and the Greek debt crisis. The semi-cooperative bank, which is under new management and trying to return to its low-risk retail lending roots, was hit [...]
RBS losses widen to £1.8bn February 23, 2012 State-owned Royal Bank of Scotland posted a fourth quarter loss of nearly £2bn, hurt by writedowns on assets and restructuring costs. RBS, 82 per cent owned by the government after a state bailout during the 2008 credit crisis, reported a fourth-quarter loss of £1.8bn, pushing it back into the red after it made a third-quarter [...]
Centrica profits edge up February 23, 2012 British Gas owner Centrica reported a small increase in full-year profit as higher commodity prices and mild weather offset gains in its upstream oil and gas business. The company, however, said it plans to deliver improved earnings growth this year, driven largely by higher oil and gas production. Centrica, which owns Britain’s biggest household energy [...]
Banks fork out £1.9bn for insurance mis-selling February 22, 2012 Lenders paid out a record £441m in compensation for insurance mis-selling in December, taking payouts for 2011 to £1.9bn and raising the prospect of an even bigger bill this year. The financial regulator said payouts in December jumped 16 per cent from the previous record of £379m in November. Aside from September, there has been [...]
Bank mulled even more QE in February February 22, 2012 Two Bank of England policymakers voted for a bigger stimulus to the economy in February than their colleagues could support, minutes to the Bank’s February 8-9 meeting showed on Wednesday. The news is likely to re-open the debate about whether the central bank will add further quantitative easing in May, especially as the minutes showed [...]
Shell bids $1.6bn for Cove February 22, 2012 Royal Dutch Shell has made a ($1.6bn) £992.4m bid for Mozambique-focused Cove Energy, offering a full price to open up a new gas frontier for the Anglo-Dutch oil major in East Africa. Shell has offered 195 pence per share in cash, which Cove’s directors said Wednesday they would recommend to shareholders. Tuesday, Cove’s shares closed [...]
