Corruption risk from foreign aid target, say Lords March 28, 2012 DRIVING up the government’s foreign aid budget risks stoking corruption in poor countries, an influential House of Lords committee has found. The department for international development (DfID) must “do more to tackle corruption” that stems from British aid, the Lords’ economic affairs committee will argue today. “DfID detected only £1.2m of fraud in its £7.7bn [...]
IPO success for food firm Annie’s March 28, 2012 Shares in Annie’s surged 89 per cent on their first day of trading yesterday despite the organic food company pricing its IPO above a boosted price range. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Annie’s had the best debut performance since LinkedIn’s shares soared 109 per cent when the website floated for $45 last May. [...]
BlackRock backs Glencore-Xstrata March 28, 2012 BlackRock yesterday came out in support of Glencore’s planned £21.3bn bid for Xstrata. The merger, which would create the world’s fourth-largest mining company, has been widely criticised with Standard Life, Schroders and Allianz Global all publicly coming out in opposition. But speaking in Hong Kong yesterday, fund manager Catherine Raw, who helps manage BlackRock’s World [...]
Price of mobile roaming to be capped by EU March 28, 2012 THE COST of using a mobile phone abroad will be significantly cheaper from this summer after the European Union yesterday announced it would cap roaming charges. Effective from 1 July, subject to approval, the cost of downloading one megabyte worth of data will be no more than 59p from this summer and is set to drop to [...]
Shawbrook to ramp up lending after buying asset finance firm March 28, 2012 SHAWBROOK, the new business bank chaired by former RBS boss Sir George Mathewson, is set to grow this year after snapping up an asset finance business from the administrators of Icelandic lender Kaupthing. It has bought Singers Asset Finance, a major provider of finance to NHS trusts and small and medium sized enterprises, which did not [...]
Total warned of cost of billions as fears mount over gas leak March 28, 2012 FRENCH oil giant TOTAL could lose billions of pounds if its North Sea gas leak leads to an explosion, analysts warned yesterday. The firm, which has seen $9bn (£5.7bn) wiped off its market capitalisation since Tuesday when the leak at its Elgin platform began, faces losses from $200m up to $10bn in a worst-case scenario [...]
Lloyd’s pushed into red after a year of disaster March 28, 2012 LLOYD’S of London has suffered the second-worst catastrophe losses in its 324 year history, paying out a record £4.6bn in disaster-related claims during 2011. Earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand combined with floods in Australia and tornadoes in America to create a horrific year for underwriters, dragging the market into the red with a £526m loss, [...]
Catastrophes cost economy £232bn in 2011 March 28, 2012 A YEAR of natural catastrophes and man–made disasters cost the worldwide economy over $370bn (£232bn) in 2011, according to new research from the insurer Swiss Re. It estimates that insurers will have to cover $116bn of this cost, up from their December forecast of $108bn. Japan’s earthquake, which caused over 19,000 deaths, accounted for more [...]
PPI sales chaos triggers a spike in complaints March 28, 2012 A SURGE in public anger over payment protection insurance (PPI) has helped push up complaints about financial institutions more than a fifth to 2.26m. Complaints about the controversial method of cover jumped 85 per cent to nearly 980,000 in the second half of last year, according to the Financial Services Authority. The total paid out [...]
Co-op granted licence to sell legal services March 28, 2012 CO-OPERATIVE Legal Services has become the first alternative business structure (ABS) to launch in the UK after being officially approved by regulators, along with a pair of regional solicitors’ firms. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said yesterday it had licensed the Co-operative Group subsidiary, Oxford-based John Welch and Stammers, and Lawbridge Solicitors in Kent as [...]
