Macquarie in the doldrums February 9, 2010 Macquarie Group, Australia’s top investment bank, yesterday forecast a disappointing second-half profit and gave an outlook that raised worries about its key equity business, sending its shares sliding seven per cent. Macquarie warned in its trading update that some market conditions were weakening, creating concerns over its Australian equity capital markets business. The bank is [...]
MYNERS CALLS FOR PENSIONS ACTION February 9, 2010 CITY minister Lord Myners yesterday urged pension funds to play a greater role in demanding a crackdown on excessive bonuses to protect pensioners’ cash. Myners told the National Association of Pension Funds that fund trustees and institutional investors had a legal duty to pensioners to ask for higher standards from the financial services industry and [...]
Investment recovery drives annual profits leap at Beazley February 9, 2010 Lloyd’s of London insurer Beazley yesterday reported a 15 per cent jump in its annual profit as rebounding financial markets fuelled a recovery in its investment returns. Dublin-based Beazley said it had a pre-tax profit for 2009 of £100.7m, up from £87.2m the previous year. The improvement partly reflected a strong recovery in the performance [...]
Virgin Money wins acceptances for Church House Trust purchase February 9, 2010 VIRGIN Money yesterday said it had received acceptances from shareholders representing all of the voting rights for small bank Church House Trust, which it is buying to gain a full UK banking licence. The company, headed by Jayne Anne Gadhia, has already confirmed its interest in buying assets from Northern Rock, Lloyds Banking Group and [...]
UBS outflows spoil Grübel’s profits party February 9, 2010 UBS reported a return to profitability yesterday, but there were few celebrations as the Swiss bank revealed a haemorrhaging of private client money in the fourth quarter. Outflows almost doubled to SFr33.2bn (£20bn) after an aggressive Italian tax amnesty added to deeper problems associated with the international crackdown on banking secrecy. UBS chief executive Oswald [...]
Back in the black but doubts remain February 9, 2010 UBS might have hauled itself back into the black, but it is not out of the woods yet. It was primarily a reduction in costs that helped the firm post a profit, rather than a dramatic recovery in the top line. It managed to keep staffing costs low by doling out variable pay in shares, [...]
Google takes on facebook February 9, 2010 GOOGLE has injected social networking features into its popular web email product as the world’s largest search engine seeks to fend off competition from Facebook and Twitter. Google introduced a new product dubbed “Google Buzz” yesterday that allows users to quickly share messages, web links and photos with friends and colleagues directly within Gmail, the [...]
Irish government will throw even more money at its banks February 9, 2010 THE Irish government will throw more money at its financial system as part of its “bad banks” project. Governor of the Irish central bank Patrick Honohan said yesterday the government will have to take additional equity stakes as part of the recapitilisation process. Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks will need fresh capital once [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE DEBT CRISIS IN EUROPE? February 9, 2010 JOHN ROUNDHILL | INGEN “It’s monstrous. If Britain was in a better position, sterling would be rising against the euro. I’d like to see both currencies rising, rather than being fundamentally weak as they are at the moment. It makes the dollar look strong, which is not what I want.” SHEILA FARTINI | OPENLINK “Of [...]
Deficit for UK traded goods worst in year February 9, 2010 THERE were more signs that the UK will face a tough slog back to economic recovery yesterday after trade data for the end of last year was weaker than expected. The UK’s deficit in traded goods widened to £7.3bn in December from £6.8bn the previous month; this is the largest deficit for a year as [...]
