ABN Amro to sell assets to ease EC fears July 7, 2009 DUTCH state-controlled bank ABN Amro is expected to strike a deal by mid-September to sell some assets to settle European Union competition concerns, the Dutch finance ministry said yesterday. The €70bn (£48bn) purchase of ABN in 2007 by a consortium of Royal Bank of Scotland, Spain’s Santander and Belgian-Dutch group Fortis saw Fortis agree to [...]
LSE numbers down July 7, 2009 A total of 19.6m equity trades were carried out across the London Stock Exchange Group’s electronic order books during June 2009, with a combined value of £152.5bn. The average daily number of equity trades across the group’s markets was down by eight per cent compared with the previous year. The average daily value traded was [...]
New high-speed Eurostar route July 7, 2009 Eurostar yesterday unveiled a new high-speed train service between Brussels and Amsterdam, due to commence next year. The upcoming high-speed Fyra service will reach speeds of 250 km/h (155mph). The firm made the decision in response to increasing demand, with numbers taking the train from London to Amsterdam via Brussels rising 22 per cent over [...]
N Brown increases turnover July 7, 2009 N Brown, the home shopping firm, reported that turnover increased by 5.1 per cent in the 18 weeks to 4 July, while online sales are up by 25 per cent. Debtor growth is reduced to eight per cent, down from 13 per cent at the end of the year.
Johnson are cleaning up July 7, 2009 Johnson Service Group, the drycleaning company, expects pre-tax profit to remain sufficient despite the economic downturn. Operating profits until the end of 2008 were £5.5m, up from a loss of £33.1m the year before.
Healthy returns for RWC July 7, 2009 RWC Partners’ multi-asset team has raised more than $2bn (£1.24bn) since launching in January 2007. The fund has generated positive returns in approximately 85 per cent of months since they launched two years ago.
DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH July 7, 2009 PETRA Diamonds said yesterday its annual output had surged over 450 per cent to more than 1m carats, though it warned lower rough diamond prices had put pressure on revenues, which fell 10 per cent to $69.1m (£42.8m). But the firm, which recently produced two blue diamonds worth around $9m from its Cullinan mine, above, [...]
CITY MOVES Who’s switching jobs July 7, 2009 Palamon Capital PartnersThe mid-market private equity firm has appointed Dr Richard Wolman to its now 13-strong board of advisers. Wolman is a consultant in human resource development with a particular focus on investment firms, trading houses and management consultancies. Since 2008, he has been working with Palamon on internal development strategies and assisting its investment [...]
The internet brands that consumers trust the most July 7, 2009 THE Tories have said that they will embrace the age of “open source”, making government information open for “mash-ups” and even letting patients store their NHS data with commercial companies like Microsoft and Google, rather than with the NHS. This is part of their post-bureaucratic age (PBA) agenda, of which more below. So which companies [...]
US energy speculators face curbs July 7, 2009 THE top regulator of US futures markets is considering a clamp down on excessive speculation in energy and commodity trading by restricting holdings of big players, as part of a broader move by the Obama administration to stabilise financial markets. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Gary Gensler said yesterday that the agency will hold [...]
