Icap completes Japan overhaul January 4, 2012 Icap has restructured its holdings in Japan, the interdealer broker said yesterday. Icap has sold its Japanese government bond business for £1m, and has raised its stake in a derivatives business, Central Totan Securities, which will run the expanded bond operations.
DS Smith chairman steps down January 4, 2012 DS Smith’s chairman Peter Johnson is standing down after almost 12 years at the firm. Johnson left his post temporarily in October to care for his ill wife. He will be replaced by non-executive director Gareth Davis, who also chairs Wolseley and William Hill and was previously chief executive at Imperial Tobacco.
CRH ramps up expansion spree January 4, 2012 Irish building materials group CRH spent €400m on nearly two dozen acquisitions and investments in the second half of last year, it said yesterday, bringing its total deal spend last year to €600m. A major player in the US market, CRH has over €1bn to spend on acquisitions over the next 18 months.
CBS to keep Tube advertising job January 4, 2012 Transport for London and CBS Outdoor have patched up their differences to salvage a £1bn contract to run all adverts on the London Underground. CBS has held the mandate since 2006, but threatened to walk away in August over the spiralling cost of digital screens.
Catastrophes cause record losses in 2011 January 4, 2012 EARTHQUAKES, storms and floods that battered the world in 2011 caused an unprecedented level of economic damage and insured losses, a leading insurance group said yesterday. Natural catastrophes set a new record of $380bn (£244bn) of economic losses last year, two and a half times higher than in 2010 and $160bn higher than the previous [...]
Reinsurance rates to rise in 2012 renewals January 4, 2012 COSTLY disasters in 2011 are causing reinsurance groups to demand higher rates to protect underwriters in January renewals, a global insurance broker said yesterday. Reinsurance rates are likely to rise across Asia, the US and Europe as well as substantially in catastrophe-hit areas, as cumulative losses and tough new Solvency II regulation in Europe affect [...]
Floats fall by 40pc in 2011 market slide January 4, 2012 COMPANIES raised almost a third less capital on stock markets worldwide in 2011 as they did in 2010, as a slump in global equity markets deepened throughout last year, new data yesterday showed. The total amount of equity raised on capital markets worldwide fell 30 per cent year-on-year to $628.3bn (£403.3bn), with the second half [...]
Gloomy Gross looks to stars January 4, 2012 THE MANAGER of the world’s largest bond fund, Bill Gross, has struck an apocalyptic tone in his latest letter to investors and described the market environment as “paranormal”. Gross (pictured), who runs Pimco’s $244bn Total Return bond fund, said 2012 will be a year of “credit and zero-bound interest rate risk” with fewer incentives for [...]
EU pension plans could hurt all worker schemes January 4, 2012 PENSION scheme reforms being mooted by the European Union could wipe out all pension provision in the UK – not just the defined benefit schemes currently struggling to stay open, accounting group PwC said yesterday. PwC estimates that the plans, which would force pension schemes to hold solvency capital in the same way as banks, [...]
Cash-rich firms fuel rise in M&A deals in 2011 despite slowdown at year end January 4, 2012 MERGER and takeover activity increased last year compared to 2010 to a global total of $2.81 trillion (£1.8 trillion), despite a fall-off in deals at the year end, data yesterday showed. Data from Dealogic showed M&A activity rose three per cent in 2011, with more than half of the deals announced in the first half, [...]
