Corporate bond market issuance hits 2009 levels June 13, 2012 THE MARKET for top European corporate bond issues has continued its recovery to hit its highest year-to-date point since 2009. The value of investment grade corporate debt issued reached €86.68bn (£70bn) for the year to 12 June, up 38.6 per cent from the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters. German car group Porsche [...]
Fund manager Polar Capital basks in warmth of profit rise June 13, 2012 FUND manager Polar Capital posted a jump in profits yesterday after winning $1bn of net inflows over the last year. The AIM-listed firm, which is based in London, said profits for the year to 31 March rose five per cent to £9.6m. Assets under management climbed to $5.08bn (£3.27bn), up 31 per cent on the [...]
ANTOFAGASTA INVESTORS BRUISE CHAIRMAN June 13, 2012 INVESTORS in London-listed miner Antofagasta fired a warning shot at chairman Jean-Paul Luksic yesterday as 10 per cent voted against his re-election. Luksic, a major shareholder who is running the firm on an interim basis after the shock departure of chief exec Marcelo Awad, bore the brunt of shareholders’ frustration with a dividend cut amid [...]
Walker Crips profits slump June 13, 2012 Private-client broker Walker Crips posted a slump in profits of nearly 40 per cent yesterday amid turmoil in the Eurozone. Pre-exceptional profit before tax fell 39.9 per cent to £1.06m for the year to 31 March. Revenue inched up one per cent to £20.31m but the firm said it was hit by a lower level [...]
South West Trains ballot for strike June 13, 2012 The RMT union is balloting workers at South West Trains for industrial action during the Olympics, accusing the train operator of reneging on an earlier deal on working hours. The union claims SWT has breached a “business as usual” agreement by advertising additional trains and later running during the Games. The company said it was [...]
G20 body warns on bonuses June 13, 2012 Banks are failing to comply with global rules requiring them to peg bonuses to long-term company performance, the regulatory task force of the Group of 20 leading economies said yesterday. The G20 approved principles in the aftermath of the 2007-09 financial crisis to stop bonuses from encouraging excessive risk taking. The rules limit how much [...]
Poor education set to hit global output growth June 13, 2012 A LACK of education and skills will drag down global economic growth in the coming decade unless governments and businesses take drastic action to improve training, according to a report out today from McKinsey. The consultancy believes there could be 85m too few high- and medium-skill workers and around 90m too many low-skilled workers by [...]
Jump in OAPs going to work June 13, 2012 THE NUMBER of people working beyond state pension age has almost doubled over the last 20 years, according to a survey published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In 2011, 1.4m pensioners were in work, up from 753,000 in 1993. Of those, 32 per cent are self-employed, compared with only 13 per cent [...]
Middle-sized firms miss out June 13, 2012 THE UK’S medium-sized firms have missed out on more than 240,000 additional jobs and over £35bn of increased revenues as they are less successful than their German rivals, an industry study reports today. GE Capital found German’s Mittelstand firms expanded more rapidly than their British counterparts in the last three years, and remain far more [...]
Capital spending up in Japan June 13, 2012 Japan’s core machinery orders rose more than expected in April, official data showed yesterday, suggesting that rebuilding from last year’s earthquake will offset some of the pain from a strong yen and Europe’s debt crisis to support the fragile economy. The 5.7 per cent rise in core orders, a leading indicator of capital spending, was [...]
