CITY STILL WITHIN OUR GRASP, SAYS REHN December 12, 2011 BRITAIN’S veto of a new European treaty to tighten fiscal oversight of states will not stop Europe regulating the City, Olli Rehn, the European Union’s economic and monetary affairs commissioner, said yesterday. Rehn said the UK’s veto was a matter of “regret” as Europe did not want it “on the sidelines”. The European Commission, meanwhile, [...]
FSA vows no repeat of ABN Amro fiasco December 12, 2011 THE CITY regulator has vowed to get “deeply into the guts” of any future financial services takeover on the scale of Royal Bank of Scotland’s acquisition of ABN Amro. Chairman Lord Turner said the Financial Services Authority would take a far more proactive approach today to the €71bn (£47bn) takeover of the Dutch bank, led [...]
RBS: WHO TAKES THE BLAME? December 12, 2011 Sir Fred Goodwin The FSA had harboured worries about Fred the Shred’s internal dominance as far back as 2003. It criticised the ABN Amro deal, his brainchild, as a “gamble” and dismissed the due diligence carried out as little more than “two lever arch folders and a CD”. Goodwin’s relationship with the FSA slumped to [...]
Cash bid for Endemol in face of debt December 12, 2011 TIME Warner has revised its bid for the debt-ridden television production company Endemol, restating its previous proposal of €1bn (£859m) as an all-cash offer. This comes amid talks of debt restructuring at the Dutch company behind Big Brother and Deal or No Deal, which has racked up €2.8bn of debt. It is expected that Endemol’s [...]
Intel sales hit by Thai hard drive drought December 12, 2011 SHARES in US chip maker Intel fell more than four per cent in trading yesterday as it warned that supply shortages of computer hard drives caused by floods in Thailand would hurt its revenue in the current quarter. More than 600 people have died in the flooding, which has caused billions of dollars in damages [...]
Virgin wades back into the fight for BMI December 12, 2011 VIRGIN Atlantic has muscled into the auction for BMI, a month after British Airways parent IAG agreed to buy the airline. Lufthansa, which owns BMI, said yesterday it has also reached an agreement in principle to sell the carrier Virgin, stressing that its deal with IAG had not been exclusive. Virgin, which has shown interest [...]
BEHIND THE SCENES AT ENDEMOL December 12, 2011 Q. What is time warner hoping to achieve? A. Time Warner has turned its eyes to Europe: of the company’s 20 deals in the last few years, about 80 per cent have been outside the US. Endemol’s deadline for sorting out its finances is today, so this is an opportune time for Time Warner to [...]
The City’s Takeover Panel needs to get a grip December 12, 2011 WHEN Omega Insurance decided five years ago to redomicile to Bermuda, I would think it unlikely that many shareholders gave much thought to how the company would be regulated from here on in, specifically in regard to being within the remit of the City’s Takeover Panel. But in the past few days many of them [...]
Battersea Power Station folds December 12, 2011 Battersea Power Station was put into administration yesterday after its owner failed to repay it creditors £324m of debt. Irish developer Real Estate Opportunities had been seeking a new investor to repay the debts and fund a £5.5bn regeneration scheme. A High Court ruling yesterday confirmed Ernst & Young as administrators a move set to [...]
Carrefour launches bid for G&G December 12, 2011 Carrefour, the world’s second-largest retailer, said yesterday it was offering to buy Guyenne et Gascogne, in a cash bid worth €494m (£418m) to secure its relationship with its largest French franchisee. The supervisory board of Guyenne et Gascogne has approved the proposed transaction, which includes an option to be paid in Carrefour shares, the two companies [...]
