TUI renegotiates contracts in drachma November 6, 2011 GERMAN travel operator TUI Travel has already written to Greek hotel proprietors, asking them to explain how they would plan to honour payment obligations if Greece were to leave the Euro. TUI confirmed reports in German newspaper Das Bild that it was renegotiating contracts to protect it from a switch back to the drachma, whose [...]
SNB ready to weaken franc November 6, 2011 THE Swiss National Bank is ready to take further measures to weaken the Swiss franc if the economic outlook and deflationary development make it necessary, its chairman said yesterday in a newspaper interview. “The franc is still highly valued versus the euro at the current exchange rate. We expect it to weaken further over time,” [...]
Carphone will sell its stake in US venture November 6, 2011 CARPHONE Warehouse (CPW) is set to announce a major overhaul of its tie-up with Best Buy, including shuttering a string of UK stores and selling its stake in its US joint venture for almost $1bn (£620m). The British firm will finally pull the plug on 11 super-sized “Big Box” electrical retailers when it posts its [...]
Exchanges cut margins to stop MF Global calls November 6, 2011 TWO major US futures exchanges have cut the initial margin that speculators must hold against futures trades, to avoid market instability as traders scramble to cover positions transferred out of the bankrupt broker MF Global. Exchange owner CME Group said it would set its initial margin upcharge at zero, lowering the risk of widespread margin [...]
Italian job a rare piece of G20 progress November 6, 2011 POLITICIANS adore pomp and ceremony, yet last week’s sight of grinning world leaders lining up for their grand group photograph in Cannes seemed somewhat inappropriate. While the glamorous French seaside town may be used to film stars coveting the limelight, on this occasion one may have expected a little more humility and even embarrassment from [...]
World leaders kick the Cannes down the road November 6, 2011 DIPLOMATS are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop”. So said France’s most famous post-war leader Charles de Gaulle. So in my analysis of the G20 in Cannes, let me start by telling you the heavens were fully open from start to finish. Cannes was wetter than [...]
All eyes on Lloyds’ bulky balance sheet November 6, 2011 LLOYDS is expected to announce that it lost over £2bn to bad loans in a closely watched quarterly results presentation tomorrow, with investors keen to judge how it will manage its credit risk without the leadership of António Horta-Osório, who departed on sick leave last week. Horta-Osório had accelerated the shrinkage of the group’s balance [...]
Japanese exchanges set for merger by autumn next year November 6, 2011 TOKYO Stock Exchange (TSE) and Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE) are in the final stages of talks to merge, with the aim of combining forces in the autumn of 2012. Under one likely scenario being discussed, the unlisted Tokyo bourse would first take a majority stake in the smaller but listed Osaka exchange as early as [...]
Successor’s challenge will be to keep up the speed of non-core shrinkage November 6, 2011 WHEN Lloyds chief António Horta-Osório retreated on to eight weeks’ sick leave last week (perhaps never to return), analysts were quick to point the finger at the bank’s 144 per cent loan-to-deposit (LTD) ratio as the likeliest source of stress. With European interbank markets largely closed for anything but covered bonds, some suspect the bank [...]
Protests must be heard, says Labour party November 6, 2011 THE protesters campaigning outside St Paul’s cathedral reflect the concerns of millions of people and it would be “reckless” to ignore or dismiss them, Labour leader Ed Miliband said yesterday. The comments, which were made in a Sunday newspaper article, constitute the strongest signal of support for the protesters from a mainstream politician since they [...]
