Rolls picks new finance chief September 22, 2011 Rolls-Royce yesterday unveiled Mark Morris as its new finance director, replacing Andrew Shilston, who is retiring at the end of the year. Morris joined Rolls in 1986 as a graduate, and has worked his way up to group treasurer. He will join the engineering group’s board alongside his new role on 1 January 2012. Shilston [...]
Kerry Group buys Cargill arm September 22, 2011 Irish food firm Kerry Group has agreed to buy conglomerate Cargill’s global flavours business for $230m (£150m). The firm, which owns Wall’s sausages and Kerrymaid butter, said the new division employs 700 people and has annual revenues of around $200m. Kerry said the transaction, expected to close by year-end, will give it access to more [...]
Goodrich sold to United Tech September 22, 2011 UNITED Technologies has reached a $16.5bn (£10.7bn) cash deal to acquire aircraft components maker Goodrich, in what would be the diversified US manufacturer’s biggest deal in a decade. United Tech, led by George David (pictured), said it would pay $127.50 a share for Goodrich, a 47 per cent premium over the stock’s price before news [...]
Changes at the top as losses widen at Sinclair IS Pharma September 22, 2011 BRITAIN’S Sinclair IS Pharma said trading in its current first quarter has been encouraging as it posted wider core losses for the year to end June. The Aim-listed company completed a fundraising last October 2010 and a merger with IS Pharma, a business bought to bolster its portfolio of speciality products, in May 2011. “Crucially [...]
Sumimoto Metal and Nippon Steel thrash out $22bn merger September 22, 2011 NIPPON Steel and Sumitomo Metal Industries said yesterday that stakeholders of Sumitomo would get 0.735 Nippon Steel shares for each Sumitomo share if they combine to create the world’s second-biggest steelmaker, in what would be Japan’s biggest non-financial sector merger. The ratio, largely in line with expectations, means the transaction would be worth about $22.45bn [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS September 22, 2011 BRITISH LAND Evolution Securities gave British Land a “neutral” rating after its investor day, in which it noted the lack of a clear roadmap. The broker acknowledges the quality of the firm’s portfolio and excellent balance sheet but said a lack of clarity prompted the rating. It gave a target price of 600p. CREDIT SUISSE [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 22, 2011 Vipera The mobile financial services provider has appointed Luciano Martucci, the former chairman of IBM Italia, as a non-executive chairman. In addition, Petter Neby, chairman of Neby & Jahrmann, a cornerstone investor in Vipera, has been appointed as a non-executive director, and non-executive chairman John Defterios has resigned from the board. Sinclair IS The pharma [...]
FTSE suffers 5pc losses on Fed woe September 22, 2011 A TOXIC cocktail comprising a grim economic outlook from the US Federal Reserve and downbeat data in China left Britain’s top shares nursing a near five per cent drop yesterday, as investors pinned some hopes on this week’s G20 meeting. Commodity stocks, sensitive to data showing a stuttering recovery, were the biggest fallers by some [...]
Dire day of selling sinks US equities September 22, 2011 US stocks plunged yesterday, extending a selloff to four days, as policymakers’ failure to arrest global economic stagnation sent markets spiraling downward. The heavy volume of last night’s plunge signaled investors are selling in anticipation of more losses. Wall Street’s “fear gauge”, the CBOE Volatility Index, jumped 12 per cent, giving the index its biggest [...]
The Fed’s paper plane won’t fly: why the US economy is in need of more than a Twist September 22, 2011 THE markets were hoping for a helicopter drop from the US Federal Reserve this week, a reference to Ben Bernanke’s infamous 2002 speech on how to prevent deflation. What they got was more a paper plane, where the Fed will fly Treasury bonds from the short to the long end of the interest rate curve. [...]
