Hedge funds launch attack on Endemol January 31, 2010 BIG Brother producer Endemol is involved in a fracas with a powerful group of hedge fund owners. The hedge funds, which own Endemol’s £1.9bn debt, have accused the television giant of financial engineering to avoid breaching its loan agreement. The spat broke out over a complex scheme in which Endemol was buying back its own [...]
Avatar climbs to new heights at the box office January 31, 2010 THE 3-D movie phenomenon “Avatar” moved further into rarefied territory at the worldwide box office during the weekend, surpassing the $2bn (£1.25bn) mark days after it broke the record held by “Titanic”. James Cameron’s sci-fi spectacular has grossed $2.039bn after seven chart-topping weekends of release, distributor 20th Century Fox said yesterday. The film last Monday [...]
Santander’s UK profits up January 31, 2010 SPANISH banking group Santander is expected to unveil a 27 per cent jump in profits from its British operations this week. Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley will report pre-tax profits of £2.2bn, up from £1.6bn, according to analysts. The overall group is predicted to report a marginal rise in pre-tax profits from [...]
HSBC strategists fly east to drive growth in Hong Kong January 31, 2010 HSBC has underlined its focus on the Chinese market by moving a team of around a dozen strategists to Hong Kong along with its global head of strategy, Antonio Simoes. Simoes will work closely with chief executive Michael Geoghegan, who received a hero’s welcome on his first day at the bank’s far eastern office last [...]
More than 17,000 top City jobs lost since recession took hold January 31, 2010 MORE than 17,000 of the City’s top financiers lost their jobs in the past two years, a new report shows. The figures, based on Financial Services Authority data, show that redundancies, insolvencies and early retirement wiped out around 10 per cent of the highest-ranking employees in Britain’s financial-services industry. The figures refer only to individuals [...]
PEPSICO HEALTH DRIVE January 31, 2010 PepsiCo chief executive Indra Nooyi has said she wants the firm to treble its revenue for healthy foods over the next decade. She said that the company currently has $43bn (£26.9bn) revenue, of which $10bn is “good for you” products including Quaker Oats, Tropicana and Naked Juice, while the rest is “fun for you”.
Acquisitions bearing fruit for Astaire January 31, 2010 SMALL cap broking veteran Edward Vandyk is reaping the rewards of his aggressive drive for consolidation in the sector, after a series of new client wins for Astaire Securities pushed his firm into third position among the advisers to the Aim market. Astaire – which was renamed last year after Vandyk took over Blue Oar [...]
France to reduce growth in public spending from 2011 January 31, 2010 FRANCE plans to cut growth in public spending to less than 1 per cent a year from 2011 to cut the country’s ballooning budget deficit, the French prime minister said at the weekend. Paris plans the cuts to reduce the deficit to 3 per cent of gross domestic product by 2013 from this year’s level of [...]
Bank may call time on its QE programme January 31, 2010 THE Bank of England is this week expected to turn off the stimulus taps and bring its unprecedented £200bn quantitative easing programme to an end when the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets later this week. The central bank has been injecting money into the UK economy from last March and has so far bought almost [...]
Global perspective needed for City reputation January 31, 2010 IT’S Monday and, having just returned to the Square Mile after leading a City delegation to the US, I now have to prepare to leave London again on Saturday for the first of two visits to the Gulf. The close proximity of these business visits throws up some major contrasts between these two markets. In [...]
