Singapore and Europe agree free trade deal December 16, 2012 THE EUROPEAN Union and Singapore agreed to terms of a free-trade deal yestrday, a move that should further open the Asian country’s markets for financial services and make it easier for carmakers to export there. “We have finalised the negotiations, and I’m very pleased with the result,” said EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht. The [...]
Parliamentary banking standards commission to unveil a tough stance on bank ring-fencing December 16, 2012 A HEAVYWEIGHT parliamentary committee on banking standards will this week unveil a hardline stance on proposals to ring-fence the retail banking operations of high street banks from their investment banking activities. The commission on banking standards – comprised of big hitters including former chancellor Lord Lawson, the future Archbishop of Canterbury Reverend Justin Welby and [...]
Commodity trading giant Trafigura mulls London float of Puma December 16, 2012 COMMODITY trading giant Trafigura is mulling plans to join its Swiss-based rival Glencore and float part of its business on the London Stock Exchange. Trafigura, a top three oil trader and the second biggest metals trader behind Glencore, yesterday said it was still weighing up an initial public offering of its oil subsidiary Puma Energy [...]
RIM losses set to continue December 16, 2012 RESEARCH in Motion (RIM), the Canadian company that makes BlackBerry smartphones, is expected to reveal another round of losses this Thursday, as it gears up for a make-or-break product launch in January. Consensus forecasts put RIM’s third-quarter losses at $182m (£112.6m) as it continues to lose market share to the likes of Apple. Despite this, [...]
US mourns Connecticut school shooting victims December 16, 2012 Tributes poured in over the weekend for the 26 slaughtered in a primary school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday. US President Barack Obama visted the town yesterday, as some senior US politicians called for stricter gun control laws. Twenty children and six women died in the rampage on Sandy Hook school by gunman Adam Lanza, [...]
Eni pledges cash for Libyan oil December 16, 2012 Italian oil and gas company Eni will invest $8bn (£4.9bn) in the next 10 years to develop its activities in Libya, the group said yesterday The investment plan was presented by Eni chief executive Paolo Scaroni to Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan yesterday in Tripol.
Argentina nears IMF deadline December 16, 2012 Argentina has until today to tell the International Monetary Fund how it plans to produce more reliable data on its growth and inflation, or risk being thrown out of the G20. IMF head Christine Lagarde in September gave Argentina three months to put it statistical house in order, though no immediate action is expected if [...]
MPs to grill Laidlaw over trains December 16, 2012 Sam Laidlaw will appear before MPs tomorrow to discuss his report into the botched West Coast Main Line franchise competition. Laidlaw, the chief executive of Centrica and a non-executive at the Department for Transport, earlier this month published a stinging paper on how poor leadership, overwork and flawed sums led to the collapse of the [...]
First Quantum sweetens bid for Inmet with £3.2bn offer December 16, 2012 CANADA-based First Quantum Minerals yesterday upped its offer for rival mining firm Inmet in a deal worth C$5.1bn (£3.2bn). First Quantum, which has assets in Africa, Australia, South America and Europe, is offering C$72 in a mixture of cash and shares for each Inmet share, which it says represents a 65 per cent premium to [...]
Berlusconi set to wed 27-year-old December 16, 2012 ERSTWHILE Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi has announced his engagement to his 27-year-old girlfriend, Francesca Pascale. The former premier, known for his anti-euro rhetoric, is eyeing up a return to Italian politics ahead of general elections expected in February. Mario Monti said last weekend that he would stand down as Italian Prime Minister once the 2013 [...]
