Nomura beefs up equities team July 19, 2009 Nomura Holdings’ US brokerage unit has hired Ciaran O’Kelly from Bank of America as a managing director and head of equities in the Americas. The hiring by Nomura Securities International is part of an aggressive push by its Japan-based parent to expand in North America, following its purchase last year of Lehman Brothers’ Asian, European [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 19, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphENGINE IN DRIVE FOR EXPANSIONThe advertising agency that created the 118 directory enquiries runners is seeking £50m to fund an international expansion drive that will take it to the US and the Far East. The Engine Group has appointed advisers at Jefferies and the corporate finance arm of Ingenious Media to secure [...]
GSK to get flu injection July 19, 2009 DRUGS giant GlaxoSmithKline is gearing up to make almost £1.3bn from sales of its swine flu drug treatments. In May the UK’s largest drug firm said that it had already taken 128m orders for a vaccine, in deals worth approximately £600m, including those from the UK. But with around 50,000 cases in the UK diagnosed [...]
Tories are right to want to scrap the FSA July 19, 2009 SO the Tories are going to bite the bullet and abolish the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Most of its banking and financial stability powers will be handed over to the Bank of England; the rump, focussing on consumer protection, will be relabelled as the Consumer Protection Agency. The Bank will become home to a new [...]
VW poised to buy Porsche July 19, 2009 PORSCHE’S controlling families are this week set to agree the sale of its sports car business to Volkswagen for roughly €8bn (£6.9bn), according to reports in Germany. The rival Porsche and Piech clans, which together own 100 per cent of Porsche, are understood to be about to approve the two-stage takeover at a a supervisory [...]
Watchdog staff set for exodus July 19, 2009 SENIOR staff at the City’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) have complained that shadow chancellor George Osborne’s determination to downgrade the organisation if a Conservative government is elected next year has seriously affected its ability to hire key people and has damaged morale. “External people have withdrawn suddenly from job applications,” said one FSA staffer, citing [...]
TORIES PLEDGE TO ABOLISH THE FSA July 19, 2009 A CONSERVATIVE government would abolish the “failed” tripartite system of financial regulation and hand chief responsibility for supervision back to the Bank of England, shadow chancellor George Osborne will confirm today. Osborne will outline plans to dismantle the regulatory architecture designed by Gordon Brown in today’s response to chancellor Alistair Darling’s white paper on financial [...]
Petrofac wins Abu Dhabi deal July 16, 2009 Petrofac, the British oil and gas services firm, has sealed a $2.1bn (£1.3bn) deal to construct the fourth natural gas to liquids train at the Abu Dhabi-based Ruwais complex. It is the first project that Petrofac Emirates – a joint venture between Petrofac and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Petroleum Services – has been awarded and work [...]
Sterlite to raise almost 1bn July 16, 2009 Indian metals producer Sterlite said yesterday it is raising about $1.5bn (£916m) in an issue of American Depository Shares (ADS), with parent Vedanta to buy $500m of the issue. The proceeds would be used to develop its power generation business in India, capital expenditure and for planned acquisitions, it said in a statement. The deal [...]
Finsbury suitor walks away July 16, 2009 Finsbury Food Group, the bread and cakemaker, has confirmed that talks over a possible offer for the company have been called off. On 1 June, Finsbury announced that discussions were underway but then warned that the approach was only “exploratory in nature” and expressed “considerable doubt” that an offer would materialise.