BEST OF THE BROKERS January 5, 2012 ORASCOM After the company announced a demerger of its fertiliser and construction businesses, Morgan Stanley rates the Egyptian construction group as “overweight” with a target price of $49. The demerger will see OCI hold the fertiliser business, while the demerged company will hold the construction segment. Each shareholder will receive one share in the demerged [...]
Banks gain on US economic optimism January 5, 2012 BANKS led Wall Street to gains yesterday even as Europe struggled again, a sign investors are betting a relatively strong US economy will help US stocks outperform other markets. Overall gains were small, but banks advanced for a third day, supported by better-than-expected economic data. US financial shares continued to delink from their European peers [...]
Fresh nerves over euro debt put dampers on FTSE index January 5, 2012 BRITAIN’S blue-chip share index closed lower yesterday on growing fears that Eurozone countries and banks could struggle to tap markets this year. The FTSE 100 dropped 44.19 points, or 0.8 per cent, to close at 5,624.26, in tandem with most European indexes and the euro currency, after a French debt auction, though oversubscribed, failed to [...]
Margaret Thatcher’s legacy is that no-one tries to scrap what the Iron Lady achieved January 5, 2012 THIS isn’t a review of The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher and on general release in cinemas this week [For this, see p. 18]. I’m sure it’s a fine film and I’ll see it once I can scrape together the money from my dwindling pension for a pair of tickets and some [...]
Regulation can’t wipe out the risk of another Enron January 5, 2012 MOST of us don’t need reminding about the 2001 accounting fraud that became known as the Enron scandal – $11bn of value wiped out in what was at the time the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy ever – and which also brought down Arthur Andersen. On 17 December last year, Enron’s chief financial officer Andrew Fastow [...]
A Victorian star which should shine Brighter January 5, 2012 IN MY brief visit to last October’s Conservative conference, while the Tory elite partied inside their secure zone, my wife and I found ourselves alone as we made the brief pilgrimage to a statue on Albert Square. The small huddle of protestors nearby weren’t paying the Victorian stone figure any attention either, nor were the [...]
RAPID RESPONSES January 5, 2012 Shorn in the USA No other developed country permits such neutering of individual shareholder rights? [True owners bear risks and rewards, yesterday] Try the USA. While there are many imperfections in the UK system, in the USA you can have 75 per cent of shareholders vote against a director and they can still go to [...]
What is in store for 2012? January 5, 2012 From initial reservations about the strength of the property market at the start of the year to the unexpected uplift in house prices as the year progressed, 2011 was not an easy year to predict. Against a continuing environment of uncertainty, we ask the experts what they think we have in store this year and [...]
FOCUS ON: HAGGERSTON January 5, 2012 CITY MILLS Price: from £245,000 A collection of apartments, currently under development, a stones throw from Hoxton. Homes will range from one bedroom city apartments, to three bedroom family homes, some with garden access. There will also be penthouse suites with large roof garden terraces available. Call: 0844 406 9800 or visit www.thecitymills.co.uk KINGSLAND WHARVES [...]
BUY January 5, 2012 DIRECTOR, DOUGLAS & GORDON Q. Thinking prices would be going down last year I signed a one year rental. Values seem to be going up, should I buy or stay renting? A. It’s easy to stay in a rental if values are falling but if, like in London, they’re still going up, it’s difficult to [...]
