Eurozone crisis is set to engulf Italy July 11, 2011 SLOWLY but surely, the Eurozone crisis is escalating. There is no longer a “risk” of contagion – it is already here, big time. Forget about Greece – and even Portugal. The European and UK economies would just about survive their default. The real nightmare would be if Italy or Spain were also to hit the [...]
Bank says it’s losing staff July 11, 2011 THE BANK of England is struggling to hold on to staff despite its generous remuneration and pension schemes, it said in its annual report last night. Governor Mervyn King, whose latest annual earnings totalled £308,252, recently defended the Bank’s policy of keeping pensions tied to the retail price index (RPI) rather than the typically-lower consumer [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 11, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES INSURERS TO FUND POLICE TEAM IN FRAUD CRACKDOWN Insurers are to spend £8.2m funding a specialist police unit that will be dedicated to cracking down on the growing problem of insurance fraud, which costs an estimated £2bn a year. A new unit of 35 specialist fraud detectives and police support staff will be [...]
Cooper may drop bid for Laird July 11, 2011 Shares in UK electronics manufacturer Laird fell almost nine per cent yesterday after its US suitor Cooper Industries threatened to walk away from merger talks rather than launch a sweetened offer. Cooper said it may consider a higher bid than the £493m offer it made last month if due diligence supported a higher price, but [...]
Strauss-Kahn court date delayed July 11, 2011 New York prosecutors and the lawyers for Dominique Strauss-Kahn have agreed to postpone the next court date in the sexual assault case for two week to give both sides more time to investigate. The delay to 1 August from 18 July was announced in a letter to the judge yesterday. The move came as defense [...]
Virgin could prefer Rock bid to Lloyds July 11, 2011 VIRGIN Money has submitted a bid for some 600 branches being sold by Lloyds, but could drop the offer after it sees Northern Rock’s sales document this week, City A.M. has learned. The information memorandum detailing the Rock assets on sale is due “imminently”, according to a source familiar with the situation, after George Osborne [...]
Deficit cuts at risk from UK’s slow growth July 11, 2011 THREE more years of sluggish growth will weigh down on the UK, while the economic recovery across many peer countries also looks set for slowdown, forecasters have said. Below-trend growth threatens to knock chancellor George Osborne’s deficit reduction plans off track, the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) announced this morning. The group estimates [...]
EU banks fear impact of new stress tests July 11, 2011 THIS year’s health check of Europe’s banks will provide “unprecedented” new insight about the industry that will be useful in a time of market turmoil, the head of the regulator overseeing the test said yesterday. “We are still in a very fragile area,” Andrea Enria, chairman of the European Banking Authority (EBA), said in regard [...]
Alcoa second quarter profit doubles on aluminium prices July 11, 2011 ALCOA, the world’s third largest aluminium producer, posted a jump in second-quarter profits, aided by soaring prices for aluminium. Net earnings at the US bellwether have more than doubled to US$322m (£205m) compared with $136m in the same quarter a year earlier, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Revenue rose to $6.66bn, up 27 [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK ITALY WILL NEED A BAILOUT FROM THE IMF? July 11, 2011 ABHIJIT PANDYA | DDO SOLICITORS “I would have thought they would be OK. It’s possible that they could raise the money internally. They’re far better able to attract foreign investors to buy their bonds than Greece. They also have profit making industries.” MIKE OGILVIE | OGILVIE SEARCH “I don’t think they’re in worse shape than [...]
