G4S investors wait for chair to step down November 2, 2011 SHAREHOLDERS in G4S believe chairman Alf Duch-Pedersen may step down within the next two days without further prompting in the wake of the botched attempt to buy Danish cleaning group ISS. City A.M. understands that while some shareholders have said they will not call for Duch-Pedersen’s head as a consequence of the failed £5.2bn takeover [...]
City of London Corporation puts its legal challenge on ice November 2, 2011 THE CITY of London Corporation has put its legal bid to evict the Occupy London protesters on ice while it digests the church’s astonishing U-turn. There are now fears the campsite surrounding St Paul’s could remain until the 2012 Olympics. Meanwhile, City A.M. has learned the City of London Corporation has held meetings to discuss [...]
Yahoo considers selling minority stake to private equity company November 2, 2011 YAHOO is contemplating the sale of a minority stake to a private equity firm followed by a large share repurchase, in a bid to buy time to turn the firm around, people familiar with the matter have said. The once-dominant internet pioneer has seen its share of the US internet search market fall while Google [...]
Labour accuses Osborne of hypocrisy on Tobin tax November 2, 2011 GEORGE Osborne, the chancellor, was accused of hypocrisy over his position on a Tobin tax yesterday, after City A.M. revealed he had doubts over such a levy despite publicly saying he would support one if adopted globally. Chris Leslie, the Labour shadow Treasury minister, said: “For all his warm words in public about backing an [...]
Capital rules to hammer banks’ assets – PwC November 2, 2011 BANK CAPITAL increases proposed by regulators could force European banks to reduce their assets by €1.8 trillion if they cannot raise it by other means, PwC claimed yesterday. “If the European banks are required to increase their capital ratio by one per cent and are unable to raise the capital to do this, they would [...]
Eight months of pressure that left Osório exhausted November 2, 2011 QUESTIONS were raised yesterday over the man brought in as the miracle-worker who would execute a speedy turnaround of bailed-out banking giant Lloyds. Expectations could hardly have been higher when the appointment of António Horta-Osório, former CEO of Santander UK, was announced, almost precisely a year ago. He rode a wave of admiration in the [...]
Quitting at the top is a very rare occurrence November 2, 2011 CHIEF executives stepping down for health reasons are a rare breed, despite their gruelling schedules and the intense pressure mounted on them. Andy Hornby’s departure from Alliance Boots less than a year after accepting the job shocked the business world. Executive chairman Stefano Pessina later revealed Hornby was suffering from stress and had probably returned [...]
StanChart set to post record profits again November 2, 2011 STANDARD Chartered has forecast income growth of at least 10 per cent this year, it said yesterday, helped by a strong showing in Asian markets, putting it on track for a ninth straight year of record earnings. The bank did however see growth slow in the third quarter, led by a further slowdown in India [...]
Sands gets costs under control November 2, 2011 HOW many bank bosses wish they could include the following sentence in a statement to the stock exchange? “The group is in excellent shape and well positioned in growth markets.” Yet that was the message from Standard Chartered boss Peter Sands yesterday, when he updated markets on the bank’s third quarter. Income growth slowed a [...]
Nedbank’s loan growth is muted November 2, 2011 NEDBANK Group, South Africa’s fourth-largest bank, said yesterday it managed to boost its earnings from fees and commissions in a lean nine months that saw its loan book expand just three per cent. Nedbank, which is majority owned by insurer Old Mutual, said non-interest revenue totalled 10.9bn rand (£854m), compared with 9.4bn in the same [...]
