UBS focuses on wealth as its profits plunge May 2, 2012 INVESTORS drove up UBS’s shares yesterday amid signs that it is successfully carrying out its strategy to focus on wealth management and scale back its investment bank. The bank’s first quarter results showed a 42 per cent drop in pre-tax profits to SFr1.3bn (£879.6m), but analysts said that the underlying results showed “resilience during aggressive [...]
HSBC sells US credit card unit to Capital One May 2, 2012 HSBC has netted a $2.5bn (£1.5bn) premium from the sale of its US credit card and retail services business to Capital One. The bank, which agreed the deal last August, said Capital One paid $31.3bn in cash for the assets, including an 8.75 per cent premium over the total loan balances. HSBC has agreed to [...]
Standard Chartered to up investment plans May 2, 2012 STANDARD Chartered will accelerate its investment plans on the back of what chief executive Peter Sands called a “strong start to 2012”. The bank gave a trading update yesterday, flagging “high single digit growth” in revenues. That was below its usual double digit growth, however, which the bank blamed mainly on “the continued strength of [...]
Ministers promise to fight against dubious claims of whiplash May 2, 2012 MINISTERS yesterday urged motor insurers to lower the cost of car insurance, while promising to fight against spurious whiplash claims that have pushed up the cost of premiums. Transport secretary Justine Greening chaired a Whitehall meeting that looked at ways of tackling a “compensation culture” that has pushed the number of claims up by 70 [...]
DO YOU BACK THE FIGHT AGAINST WHIPLASH CLAIMS? May 2, 2012 ANDY WILLIAMS COMMODITIES SOFTWARE ENGINEER It’s an excellent idea. My wife is a GP and she regularly has people who come with fake claims – nine out of ten are fraudulent. It’ll reduce my insurance. PAUL JACKSON AMODOMA CAPITAL I suspect premiums are too high. Any crackdown on spurious claims is a good thing. Twenty [...]
Numis leaps as new mandates boost outlook May 2, 2012 SHARES in broker Numis jumped more than 11 per cent yesterday as investors reacted well to a bullish statement from the firm, which said it had seen an improvement in its corporate pipeline. In the last quarter, the firm has won several significant new clients including insurer Amlin and construction group Morgan Sindall, taking its [...]
Chesapeake set for probe May 2, 2012 US Senator Bill Nelson plans to ask the Justice Department to investigate Chesapeake Energy Corp for potential fraud and price manipulation, an aide to the lawmaker said. Chesapeake shares fell nearly 15 per cent to close at $16.74 on the New York Stock Exchange, their largest decline in over three years.
Greenspan bullish on stocks yet warns over house slump May 2, 2012 ALAN Greenspan, previously head of the US Federal Reserve, said yesterday that equities remain good value, yet warned that the housing slump is weighing on America’s recovery. “Stocks are very cheap,” Greenspan said, “There is no place for earnings to grow except into stock prices.” But Greenspan warned that the US housing sector is “going [...]
BSkyB beats forecasts with record profits May 2, 2012 BSKYB yesterday shrugged off the furore surrounding its parent firm News Corp to post a record profit for the nine months to March. As rumours swirled about the firm’s future following a parliamentary report criticising News Corp and owner Rupert Murdoch, BSkyB delivered operating profit of £908m. Pre-tax profit rose 27.5 per cent to £899m. [...]
Oodles of cash: no wonder Murdoch wanted to buy May 2, 2012 SO that’s what all the fuss was about. Anyone wondering why Rupert Murdoch wanted to buy BSkyB outright, and why he will not sell down his 39 per cent stake without a fight, need only look at the satellite broadcaster’s third quarter results. Although the 15,000 new TV subscribers added in the quarter is nothing [...]
