Firms want new code of practice June 24, 2009 A clutch of the UK’s largest firms have called for the code of best practice covering boardrooms to be loosened, to allow them to opt out of guidelines. Companies including British Airways, Marks & Spencer (M&S) and Cable & Wireless want a change to the code’s ethos of “comply or explain” because they believe investors [...]
IN&M extends debt ‘standstill’ June 24, 2009 Independent News & Media has reached an agreement with creditors to extend a “standstill” agreement, giving the media organisation more time to negotiate a restructuring of its debt. The company said a deal had been struck with bondholders, allowing more time for talks on how to restructure a €200m (£170m) that was due for repayment [...]
GM seeks new bid for EU arm June 24, 2009 General Motors is soliciting rival bids to trump frontrunner Magna’s offer for its European operations, with China’s Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC) expected to seek a deal. BAIC is understood to be preparing an offer to be submitted before the end of July, while Belgium-based investor RHJ International may also put in a bid. Canadian [...]
Polar Capital gets share fillip June 24, 2009 Shares in Polar Capital gained 2.7 per cent yesterday after the hedge fund firm posted full-year results showing adjusted diluted earnings per share down 32 per cent to 9.9p, ahead of analysts’ expectations. Assets under management fell 52 per cent to $1.5bn (£913m) but all six of its funds have posted positive returns in the [...]
ECB pumps in record 442bn to boost Eurozone lending June 24, 2009 THE European Central Bank (ECB) pumped a record €442bn (£375bn) into money markets yesterday for 12 months in an attempt to improve bank lending and drag the Eurozone economy out of recession. A record 1,121 banks scrambled to take up the ECB’s offer of unlimited funds at a fixed rate of one per cent, as [...]
Treasury appoints B&B valuer June 24, 2009 The Treasury has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) valuation expert Peter Clokey as independent valuer for the Bradford & Bingley compensation scheme. Shares in the mortgage lender were transferred into temporary public ownership last September as it neared collapse. Clokey will now lead a PwC team to determine the value of any compensation payable to shareholders of [...]
Nomura aims for Top 5 ranking June 24, 2009 Japan’s Nomura is aiming for a place at investment banking’s top table after buying chunks of the Lehman Brothers empire. “Our declared goal is to become a top 5 global investment bank,” said Germany co-head Patrick Schmitz-Morkramer. Nomura bought Lehman’s Asian, European and Middle East operations in September, shortly after the Wall Street bank failed, [...]
INTIMAS GOES OUT OF FASHION June 24, 2009 INTIMAS, the ladies’ clothing designer which until earlier this month supplied Ted Baker, saw its Aim-listed shares suspended yesterday after it failed to post its full-year results to December 2008 by the market’s 30 June deadline. Intimas made a pre-tax loss of £1.65m in the six months to the end of June last year and [...]
Trio of regulators slam EC’s hedge fund regulation plans June 24, 2009 THE EUROPEAN Commission’s (EC) proposals for regulation of the alternative investment industry are flawed, three of the world’s top regulatory reformers said yesterday. Jacques de Larosière, author of the report behind the EC’s plans for a pan-European regulatory system joined Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Turner and Conservative adviser Sir James Sassoon in criticising the [...]
King warning on UK deficit June 24, 2009 BANK of England governor Mervyn King launched a broadside against chancellor Alistair Darling’s fiscal policy yesterday, urging the government to take drastic action to reduce the UK’s “extraordinary” deficit once the recession begins to ease. The Treasury plans to sell £220bn in gilts this year in a bid to pump money into the economy, but [...]
