Taxpayers to face £4bn bill for Equitable July 18, 2008 Eight years after the near collapse of Equitable Life and four years after the Parliamentary Ombudsman began an investigation into the insurer, there was finally some hope for the company’s million or so policyholders yesterday. Ann Abraham, the parliamentary ombudsman who led the exhaustive investigation, found the government should apologise to policyholders – some of [...]
American technology giants post mixed earnings figures July 18, 2008 In a busy day in the American technology sector yesterday computer business IBM surged ahead of market expectations, while software maker Microsoft and internet firm Google failed to beat forecasts. IBM said its second-quarter profit leaped 22 per cent to $2.8bn (£1.4bn). It soared past Wall Street’s estimates as its core services division continued to [...]
HBOS backers face £300m losses on rights issue flop July 18, 2008 HBOS’s £4bn cash-call is today expected to be shunned by shareholders – making it one of the biggest ever failed rights issues. Shares in the bank staged a rally yesterday, rising 5 per cent to 268.25p – but despite clawing back some of the ground lost in recent days the stock still closed below the [...]
Fiscal rules to change July 18, 2008 Treasury officials are working on plans to reform Gordon Brown’s fiscal rules to allow for increased borrowing. The move comes as the government comes dangerously close to breaking its rules limiting public sector debt to 40 per cent of national income. Any changes are likely to be announced in the autumn pre-budget report, once the [...]
Oligarchs in fresh bid to force out BP July 18, 2008 Joint venture boss Bob Dudley could be forced to leave Russia due to visa problems Bob Dudley, chief executive of BP’s Russian joint venture TNK-BP, could be forced out of the country in the next two weeks, it emerged yesterday. In a dramatic escalation of the oil giant’s dispute with its oligarch partners, Russia’s Federal [...]
Council wage strike tests Brown’s steel July 17, 2008 Hundreds of thousands of local government workers went on strike yesterday in a dispute over pay that paralysed services from education to rubbish collection. The pay dispute is a test of the government’s nerve at a time when it is languishing far behind the Conservatives in the polls and trying to fight soaring inflation by [...]
LandSecs sales hit by crunch July 17, 2008 Land Securities, the UK’s largest developer, said yesterday lettings and asset sales are running at a slower rate than last year, reflecting the on going gloom in the property market. Chief executive Francis Salway hinted that the slump could last for at least another 12 months, as occupiers struggle to cope with the downturn in [...]
Counting on financials to outperform July 17, 2008 We are positive on the financials sector overall – valuations have dropped so far that we expect them to outperform in the long run. But we divide general financials into four different subcategories, and our views on each are quite different. The first is alternative investments. By far the biggest is Man Group – accounting [...]
BlueBay gets a boost as managed assets grow July 17, 2008 Fixed income hedge fund manager BlueBay received a boost yesterday, after its shares rose on the back of an announcement that assets under its management had grown significantly. Funds handled by the firm grew by 12 per cent to £10.5bn at the end of June, up from £9.35bn at the end of March, the firm [...]
ICAP cashes in on turmoil July 17, 2008 Inter-dealer broker ICAP proved to be an isolated bright spot on the horizon yesterday as it posted buoyant revenues for the first quarter and said it had benefited from the recent financial market volatility. In an interim trading statement for the three months to June, the group said that revenues, excluding the recent acquisition of [...]
