SPAIN’S BOND SALE SPARKS SANTA RALLY December 20, 2011 SPAIN’S borrowing cost halved yesterday, triggering a one-week high FTSE close and a jump throughout markets in Europe and across the pond. The Dow Jones spiked to finish up 2.87 per cent in New York, with a cluster of positive economic data also contributing to a possible “Santa rally” before the holiday break. US housing [...]
City redundancies are sent via text message at 4am December 20, 2011 DOZENS of bankers might have wished for a seasonal lump of coal for Christmas yesterday: instead they received a handy text message telling them that their job no longer exists. Investec laid off 90 of its front-office staff before dawn, with those who had opted into the text alert system receiving an SMS at 4.30am [...]
Treasury ends pension talks December 20, 2011 THE GOVERNMENT has raised the pressure on public sector unions by drafting new laws on pensions before the outcome of talks has become clear. Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, yesterday said he was already preparing legislation to be introduced in 2012. Union leaders and members will study the details of coalition proposals and [...]
Oh Hoare Govett. What’s in a name? December 20, 2011 I was told yesterday that a private equity group has approached a former star from Hoare Govett to look at ways of extricating the group from its troubled parent RBS. Though the identity of the individual is a mystery, there is some logic to the idea. Hoare Govett, despite years of being in the hands [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 20, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BP, TOTAL AND STATOIL SECURE ANGOLA RIGHTS A new exploration frontier off the coast of Angola that may be similar to oil fields found in Brazil is to be opened after the government of the African country awarded drilling rights to some of the world’s largest energy groups. Britain’s BP, Total of France [...]
Petropavlovsk chief steps down December 20, 2011 Petropavlovsk’s chief executive Pavel Maslovsky has swapped the boardroom for the senate floor, resigning from the Russian gold miner after being appointed a member of parliament in Russia’s far east region of Amur. The region is home to many of the London-listed miner’s key operations. Maslovsky, co-founder of the firm once known as Peter Hambro [...]
Blackberry maker to fix itself December 20, 2011 Research In Motion (RIM) has turned down takeover overtures from Amazon and other potential buyers because the BlackBerry maker prefers to fix its problems on its own, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Amazon hired an investment bank this summer to review a potential merger with RIM, but it did not make a [...]
Moody’s says Europe could hit UK rating December 20, 2011 THE UK is not immune to the sovereign debt crisis and may face a downgrade if no policies emerge soon to stabilise markets, credit ratings agency Moody’s warned last night. Although the UK’s triple-A rating is currently viewed as stable, the “formidable and rising challenges” of weak growth prospects and Eurozone worries mean the country’s [...]
Troubled RBS loses Amlin brokership December 20, 2011 RBS HOARE Govett, the broking arm of RBS, shed another key client yesterday when insurer Amlin said it had switched advisers. Amlin, the biggest Lloyd’s of London insurer by market value, announced it had appointed Morgan Stanley and Numis Securities as its new joint brokers – replacing RBS Hoare Govett which had previously been its [...]
Train tickets to rise 5.9 per cent December 20, 2011 TRAIN commuters will see fares rise by an average of 5.9 per cent in January 2012, the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) revealed yesterday. Chancellor George Osborne said last month that rail fares would rise at one per cent on top of July’s retail price index (RPI) inflation rate of five per cent to [...]
