Bank valuations slip to 2008 levels October 30, 2011 Bank valuations have been rocked by the sovereign debt crisis and investor equity risk concerns, according to the latest PwC Valuations Index. The rating slipped to just 60, hitting the lowest level since the financial crisis, with equity valuations indicating slower return to growth than forecast. Nick Rea, head of the financial services valuations team [...]
Lehman battle in Supreme Court October 30, 2011 A long-running investor battle over the client money handled by Lehman Brothers’ European arm before the group collapsed is set to be resolved at a Supreme Court hearing opening today. Hedge fund GLG is appealing an earlier ruling which increased the number of investors who may be able to gain access to cash held, but [...]
Shareholders want better Omega price October 30, 2011 MULTIPLE institutional shareholders of Omega Insurance are deeply unhappy about the price offered by the recommended bidder for a chunk of its shares, City A.M. has learned. Shareholders including Omega’s founder John Robinson are “very aggrieved” that an offer tabled by US insurance entrepreneur Mark Byrne for 25 per cent of the company will use [...]
Crunch time for Buckles as deadline for G4S deal looms October 30, 2011 THE chief executive of security firm G4S has spoken to more than 200 shareholders in the last fortnight as opponents to the £5.2bn takeover of ISS continue to emerge. Nick Buckles has been meeting and calling investors to talk them round in the run-up to Wednesday’s vote on the deal. He needs to win 75 [...]
China offers support instead of cash to Eurozone rescue efforts October 30, 2011 GREATER co-operation between China and the Eurozone is a likely result of the crisis, but China cannot be seen as a “saviour” of indebted nations, Chinese news agency Xinhua announced yesterday. The agency, usually seen as the mouthpiece of China’s rulers, said “a prosperous and stable Europe is important to China’s stability and development as [...]
How the Eurozone plans to bury its junk bonds in a big derivative October 30, 2011 LAST week’s hotly anticipated Eurozone summit might have been short on details, but it has taken little time for the market’s best financial engineers to concoct their own version of events. Eurozone leaders announced that they will look into two ways of leveraging up their bailout fund by four or five times – insuring losses [...]
Bishop urges St Paul’s camp to keep peace October 30, 2011 THE Bishop of London yesterday urged activists to remain peaceful if moves to evict them from outside St Paul’s prove successful. Dr Richard Chartres told activists that “nobody wants violence” as the 200-tent camp entered its third week. But last night protesters instead promised a new form of dissent – flash mob dances, with Occupy [...]
Court orders Qantas planes off the ground October 30, 2011 QANTAS Airways said it would resume flights today, after an Australian tribunal ordered the airline and its unions to put an immediate end to strikes that left tens of thousands of passengers stranded around the world. Fair Work Australia, an independent industrial umpire, was appointed by the government after Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce made [...]
City says Italy is biggest threat to the Eurozone October 30, 2011 ITALY is the biggest threat to the financial security of the Eurozone, according to our poll of influential City figures. Almost half of those polled said they are most worried about the state of the Italian economy, compared to a quarter about Greece and 13 per cent about Spain. Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (pictured) [...]
Smiths Group boss Bowman in pay u-turn October 30, 2011 THE chief executive of technology firm Smiths Group has bowed to shareholder pressure and abandoned a controversial multi-million pound rewards scheme. Philip Bowman has dropped the value-sharing plan, a complicated scheme that paid out in shares, after opposition from shareholders and the Association of British Insurers. He will instead be subject to a simpler long-term [...]
