Cash-rich Blackstone hits out at attacks on private equity February 2, 2012 THE PRESIDENT of Blackstone has mounted a vigorous defence against attacks on the private equity industry. Tony James spoke out against “vicious, politically motivated” criticism after Mitt Romney, the former Bain Capital boss, came under fire in the race to be the US Republican presidential candidate. Blackstone, the largest publicly listed alternative asset manager, also reported lower [...]
Debt turmoil tips Deutsche into the red February 2, 2012 DEUTSCHE Bank was plunged into the red by the Eurozone debt crisis at the end of last year, Germany’s biggest lender revealed yesterday. It lost €351m before taxes in the fourth quarter of 2011 due to “extreme market conditions”, the bank said, a dramatic reversal from the same period the previous year, when it booked [...]
BBVA income falls as Spain orders banks to raise cash February 2, 2012 SPANISH bank BBVA yesterday posted a 35 per cent fall in net profit for 2011, as it was hit by provisions for bad property loans at home and a one-off charge on its US business. BBVA’s 2011 net profit fell to €3.0bn. Its bad debts ratio declined to four per cent of total loans, versus [...]
PwC: non-core EU asset value is €2.5 trillion February 2, 2012 EUROPEAN banks are still looking to offload some €2.5 trillion in non-core assets, according to research released today by PwC, suggesting that the region will have to suffer through a flood of more deleveraging before it can produce sustained growth again. But PwC also estimates that lenders will try to jettison loans with a face [...]
Tullow Oil to ditch BAML as its broker February 2, 2012 TULLOW Oil, the FTSE 100 oil explorer, yesterday parted company with its long-standing corporate brokers, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) and RBS Hoare Govett, appointing Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley in their place. BAML’s position had been precarious ever since the bank parted company with corporate broker Andrew Osborne in November. Osborne, whom Tullow described [...]
Munich Re profits slump on the back of natural disasters February 2, 2012 PROFITS at insurer Munich Re plummeted 71 per cent during 2011 after a series of earthquakes and floods hammered the firm’s bottom line. Preliminary figures show 2011 year-end net profit of €710m (£591m), down from €2.43bn in 2010. The company has promised a return to its previous levels of profitability this year, emphasising that almost [...]
TRUMP BACKS ROMNEY FOR THE WHITE HOUSE February 2, 2012 BUSINESSMAN and TV personality Donald Trump is endorsing Mitt Romney (inset) in the race for the 2012 Republican nomination, sources said yesterday, a day after US media said Trump would be endorsing Romney’s rival Newt Gingrich.
Labour calls for Network Rail execs to forfeit their bonuses February 2, 2012 POLITICIANS have called for the directors of Network Rail to turn down their bonuses. Tom Harris MP yesterday tabled a motion, signed by 27 other Labour politicians, urging chief executive Sir David Higgins and other directors to reject any bonus payments after the rail watchdog ORR censured the group for “major asset failures, congested routes [...]
It ain’t over until Ivan Glasenberg sings February 2, 2012 IT ain’t over till Ivan Glasenberg sings. Everyone knows the rationale for the deal: massive scale, a raft of cost-saving synergies, and a much-improved presence for Glencore in commodity markets. Indeed one of the main reasons the famously secretive Glencore went public was so it could bag Xstrata, whose other shareholders were cold on a [...]
HOW A COMBINED COMPANY WOULD LOOK February 2, 2012 EMPLOYEES 127,500 GLENCORE 57,500 XSTRATA 70,000 REVENUE $175.5BN GLENCORE $145BN* XSTRATA $30.5BN* OPERATING PROFIT $14.2BN GLENCORE $3.8BN* XSTRATA $10.4BN* GLENCORE The world’s largest commodities trading house also extracts, ships and refines raw materials in three groups – metals and minerals; energy products; and agricultural products. XSTRATA One of the world’s biggest mining groups, whose assets [...]
