UK gas production drops September 29, 2011 OFFICIAL figures have shown that gas production in the North Sea has plummeted by 25 per cent just months after the Treasury’s £10bn tax raid on companies with facilities in the sea. The news is a worrying sign of an acceleration in the decline of the UK’s “indigenous” energy production. The figures show that the slump [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 29, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES INVESTMENT BANKING FEES FALL TO TWO-YEAR LOW Investment banking fees from mergers and acquisitions and capital raising have slumped in the third quarter to lows not seen since the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse. Market volatility and worries about European sovereign debt prompted a third consecutive quarterly decline in M&A activity, while [...]
S&P and Dow indices may merge September 29, 2011 McGraw-Hill Companies is in advanced talks with CME Group to merge the S&P Index business with CME’s Dow Jones Indexes, a source familiar with the situation said yesterday. Under the terms of the deal being discussed, McGraw-Hill would own the majority of the joint venture and manage it, while CME would own about 25 percent, [...]
Speed limit increased to 80mph September 29, 2011 The government said yesterday that it is considering raising the speed limit on English and Welsh motorways from 70mph to 80mph. In a move likely to prove popular with motorists but greeted with outrage by road safety groups, the Department of Transport said the limit could be raised in 2013, following a consultation with the [...]
Autonomy boss in spat with US rival September 29, 2011 MIKE Lynch, chief executive of soon-to-be-sold Autonomy, has been drawn into a bitter war of words with rival technology boss Larry Ellison. The Oracle chief accused Lynch of having a “very poor memory or lying” about a personal visit he allegedly made to Oracle’s headquarters to try to pitch Autonomy as a takeover target. Lynch [...]
Trafigura moves closer to IPO for subsidiary September 29, 2011 TRAFIGURA, one of the world’s largest commodities traders, has sold a 20 per cent stake in its oil storage business Puma Energy to Angola’s state-owned oil company, as it prepares to bring the $3.5bn (£2.2bn) subsidiary to market. The Geneva-based company said it may float Puma within the next 18 months, reducing its role to a [...]
Spencer hits out at Tobin tax plans… September 29, 2011 ICAP chief executive Michael Spencer slammed Eurozone politicians as “deluded” for their “red herring” plans to tax financial transactions yesterday, as he said trading had stayed strong over the past six months. The interdealer broker said its electronic platforms trading foreign exchange and interest rate swaps continued to grow fast while its Singapore team had [...]
ECB support for Italy debt melts away September 29, 2011 THE YIELD on Italy’s long-term debt shot to euro-era highs yesterday during its first long-dated bond auction since the sovereign was downgraded by ratings agencies. Following the revelation that Italy’s deficit rose to 3.2 per cent of GDP in the second quarter, versus 2.5 per cent the year before, Rome paid a high of 5.86 [...]
Miles: Banks could hold 20pc buffers September 29, 2011 INCREASED capital buffers should not place excessive strain on banks’ profits, the monetary policy committee’s David Miles said yesterday. Miles believes forcing banks to hold 18-20 per cent of risk-weighted assets in the form of equity – more than double the basic seven per cent level set by the incoming Basel III rules, and more [...]
Regulators should direct credit, says Adair Turner September 29, 2011 POLICYMAKERS may have to decide how much and to whom banks should lend, in the interest of financial stability, Adair Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said in a speech last night. Leaving the market to decide how to allocate credit can result in booms and busts, he told a conference on banking [...]
