Iran fright pushes oil up February 15, 2012 OIL prices soared to a six-month high yesterday after reports that Iran was banning oil exports to six European countries in protest at sanctions imposed on the country over its nuclear developments. Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and France would be cut off, Iranian state TV claimed. Any such move would pre-empt the EU’s [...]
Moody’s places almost all EU banks on alert February 15, 2012 RATINGS agency Moody’s put more than 100 European financial firms on review for possible downgrades last night, in the wake of its mass downgrade of sovereign debt on Monday. UK-based banks such as Barclays, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland are included in the review. Lloyds, which has been on review since November, is also [...]
Jobs market shows signs of stabilising February 15, 2012 THERE were tentative signs that the worst could be over for Britain’s ailing jobs market yesterday, after official figures showed that unemployment fell at the end of last year. The jobless figure stood at 2.671m, or 8.4 per cent, in the three months to December – down 14,000 from 2.684m in the three months to [...]
Suspension for UBS traders on Libor inquest February 15, 2012 A GROUP of senior traders at UBS are the latest to be suspended in connection with a global investigation into whether staff at major US and European banks manipulated Libor, the interbank lending rate which affects $350tn of financial products. Zurich-based Yvan Ducrot and Holger Seger, who both hold senior positions in UBS’s rates businesses, [...]
Iceland execs in exclusive talks February 15, 2012 THE MANAGEMENT team for Iceland Foods, led by Malcolm Walker, have swooped in to clinch exclusive talks to buy back the firm from the liquidators of Landsbanki and Glitnir. The execs, who already own 23 per cent of the firm, now have first refusal to buy Iceland ahead of private equity firms such as BC [...]
Bumi investor vision at odds with the City February 15, 2012 THE SECOND biggest shareholder in FTSE 250 miner Bumi could be on a collision course with other investors as he arrived in London yesterday to outline his vision for the company. Indonesian mining tycoon Samin Tan, who owns 24 per cent of Bumi, is due to sound out other shareholders on a board shake-up proposed [...]
Tesco’s market share takes a fresh tumble February 15, 2012 TESCO endured a double blow yesterday, as it suffered a fresh drop in UK market share in the latest Nielsen figures, and set a leaving date for its long-standing director Andrew Higginson. The supermarket giant’s share of the UK grocery market fell 0.5 percentage points on a year ago in the three months to 4 [...]
BNP Paribas loses €870m on Greek debt hit February 15, 2012 BNP PARIBAS disappointed analysts with its fourth quarter results yesterday as it revealed that it booked an €872m (£725.7m) hit from the Greek debt crisis last year and its investment bank saw profits plunge. More than half of the loss on its stock of Greek bonds – €510m – was booked in the fourth quarter [...]
Cole leaves City regulator February 15, 2012 ONE of the City’s top regulators will step down from her role next month, ahead of the Financial Services Authority’s planned split into two separate bodies. Margaret Cole, who joined the City watchdog as head of enforcement in 2005, will leave at the end of March. Having been appointed to the board in 2010, Cole [...]
Morgan Stanley sitting on loss as deal turns sour February 15, 2012 MORGAN Stanley has inadvertently become the biggest shareholder in Danish telecom group TDC after underwriting a deal to sell 15.5 per cent of the company. The investment bank is now sitting on a paper loss from the deal estimated at £4.5m, although the eventual loss (or gain) will not be clear until it has sold [...]
