Hypocrisy at the heart of banking policy July 27, 2009 PATHETIC. That is the only way to describe Alistair Darling’s ridiculous, stage-managed, utterly fake “row” with Britain’s top banks yesterday. It is the mark of a desperate, dying government that it feels obliged to resort to such a ridiculous piece of make-believe, rather than engaging in proper policy-making. To demand of the banks that they [...]
Nomura in Fed securities role July 27, 2009 THE New York Federal Reserve yesterday named Japan’s Nomura Securities International as a US primary dealer of Treasury securities, effective immediately. The addition of Nomura, a unit of Nomura Holdings, increases the number of firms that deal directly with the US Federal Reserve to 18. Primary dealers are required to bid at Treasury auctions, and [...]
FTSE 100 books 11th day of gains July 27, 2009 THE FTSE 100 rose for the 11th session in a row yesterday as investors remained optimistic over the recent flow of strong corporate news and reassuring economic data. The index matched its longest sustained run on record, last seen between late December 2003 and early January 2004. The FTSE 100 was up 9.52 points, or [...]
BISCHOFF TO TAKE CHAIR AT LLOYDS July 27, 2009 SIR WIN Bischoff will succeed Sir Victor Blank as chairman of Lloyds Banking Group, the bank announced yesterday, prompting criticism from some quarters. Bischoff, former chairman of Citigroup, will be paid £700,000 a year without shares or a bonus and will assume the role on 15 September, long before next year’s annual meeting, the deadline [...]
Verizon profits slump in crunch July 27, 2009 US telecoms giant Verizon yesterday said second-quarter profit fell 7.2 per cent hurt by higher costs and less demand among business customers pinched by the crunch. Profits fell to $3.16bn, or 52 cents a share, in the three months ended 30 June, down from $3.4bn the same period a year earlier. To counter slowing sales [...]
BC Partners writes up fund value July 27, 2009 Private equity firm BC Partners, which has estate agent Foxtons as its largest investment, wrote up its current fund by almost a quarter in the first half, returning it to par value, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday. The markup is one of the first signs that European buyout houses, who took steep [...]
IMA hails record retail sales July 27, 2009 Retail investors are re-entering investment funds in force, after scaling down their investments to prevent losses during the credit crunch, with net retail sales over the second quarter the highest on record. The Investment Management Association (IMA) said the industry booked net retail sales of £2.5bn in the month of June. IMA head Richard Saunders [...]
Ryanair pledges to continue cutting fares at the expense of yearly profits July 27, 2009 BUDGET airline Ryanair saw its shares slump eight per cent yesterday after it told the market it would continue to slash fares to win passengers during the downturn. The Irish carrier also said its net profits in the first quarter rose sixfold to €136.5m (£100m), thanks to falling oil costs, and that it expected passenger [...]
Tata hires KPMG to help cut costs at Jaguar as its earnings in India surge July 27, 2009 JAGUAR LAND ROVER’S (JLR) owner, Tata Motors, has hired KPMG and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants to advise it on cost-cutting at the struggling car firm. The carmaker will be given advice on how to break even and on how to manage its cashflow more effectively. “We are going ahead with their proposals and this is [...]
Wolseley says there will be no pick up until 2010 July 27, 2009 BUILDING supplies company Wolseley yesterday said that the market would not pick up for the rest of 2009, as it announced that pre-tax profits for the 11 months to the end of June were down 60 per cent. The firm, which shed 30,000 of its 80,000 workers in the past two years, said while there [...]
