BlackRock UniCredit stake in focus January 11, 2012 Italian market watchdog Consob is looking into two contradictory statements made by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, over its stake in UniCredit, a source close to Consob said yesterday. BlackRock said yesterday its holding in the Italian bank stood at 3.09 per cent, retracting an earlier statement which said it had cut its stake [...]
German debt auction success January 11, 2012 Investors seeking a safe haven in which to save their cash enthusiastically purchased new German bonds yesterday. A €4bn (£2.6bn) auction of five-year debt saw twice as much demand as bills on offer. The average yield came in at 0.9 per cent – the lowest since the euro was launched. Germany sold short-term debt at [...]
Taxpayer fear as UKFI execs change again January 11, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT’S faltering attempts to sell its stakes in nationalised banks suffered another blow yesterday when the chairman of the agency responsible for the stakes resigned with a gloomy parting shot at the state of the financial markets. UK Financial Investments said Sir David Cooksey is retiring, with current chief executive Robin Budenberg moving upstairs [...]
NYSE and Deutsche Boerse start last-ditch bid to save $9bn tie-up January 11, 2012 THE CHIEF executive of NYSE Euronext has pledged to fight the “serious flaws” in the argument of the European regulator, which is set to block their $9bn (£5.87bn) merger with Deutsche Boerse. Duncan Niederauer used a video to staff to pledge that he and Deutsche Boerse boss Reto Francioni would continue to press their case after it [...]
Carlyle founders flying high on $400m payday January 11, 2012 THE THREE billionaire founders of Carlyle Group took home more than $400m (£261m) last year as a series of lucratives asset sales helped the US buyout firm to a record performance. William Conway, Daniel D’Aniello and David Rubenstein, received $134m each in cash distributions and $3.8m in executive compensation, according to a regulatory filing in the [...]
Bidders circle Deutsche assets January 11, 2012 Private equity house Advent International has emerged as a bidder for parts of the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank. Blackrock is also believed to be among the firms which lodged “indicative” bids last week. All groups declined to comment. A sale is expected to raise between €1bn (£829m) and €3bn. Up to 50 banks, [...]
E.ON in $34bn Brazil power deal January 11, 2012 Giant German utility E.ON said yesterday it will team up with Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista to build the largest privately held network of power plants in Brazil, as it bets on emerging markets amid stagnant growth in Europe. Dusseldorf-based E.ON and Batista-controlled MPX Energia said they could jointly build up to 20 gigawatts of generation [...]
EDF moves to cut gas price by 5 per cent January 11, 2012 EDF Energy yesterday piled pressure on its rivals by announcing a five per cent cut to its gas prices. The company said the reduction, which comes into effect on 7 February, had been made possible by the lower wholesale cost of gas in the mild winter. But yesterday none of the other companies in the [...]
Intel takes a chip off ARM January 11, 2012 SHARES in microprocessor company ARM dropped yesterday on news that rival chip-maker Intel has partnered with Motorola and will enter the smartphone market later this year. Motorola announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that the Lenovo K800 smartphone, featuring the Intel Atom processor and operating on the Android platform, will be available [...]
London Metal Exchange faces a backlash on fees January 11, 2012 LONDON Metal Exchange members are pushing the exchange to backtrack on a new trading fee that would boost its revenues and entice bidders for the 130-year-old exchange, but would hurt some brokers’ way of doing business. The LME, which has traditionally kept fees low for its member-owners, announced last month that it would introduce an [...]
