City veteran tries insurance April 18, 2011 INVESTMENT banker turned industry leader John Nelson is to fill the large shoes left by Lloyd’s chairman Lord Peter Levene from October. A City grandee whose finance career started at Kleinwort Benson and continued at Lazard, where he ran its corporate finance division for 13 years, Nelson is now best known for his leadership of [...]
Nomos prices share offer to raise £443m April 18, 2011 RUSSIAN private bank Nomos has priced its London share offer at the higher end of expectations, as the faltering market for listings in the capital begins to show signs of life. Nomos will look to sell ordinary shares in Moscow for $35 (£21) apiece, while it will sell global depository receipts (GDRs) for $17.50 per [...]
LVMH bags massive profit April 18, 2011 LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury retailer, posted a higher than expected 17 per cent jump in sales for the first-quarter of 2011 yesterday, boosted by double-digit revenue growth across all segments. Demand for its luxury line-up, which includes brands like Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Moet and Chandon and Christian Dior, delivered huge returns as sales for [...]
Bumper three months for oil firm Halliburton April 18, 2011 OIL services giant Halliburton beat Wall Street forecasts with its quarterly results yesterday, despite a $105m (£64.6m) revenue hit from international unrest and disruption. Halliburton, which offers engineering, maintenance and equipment for oil firms, reported net income of $557m, excluding a $46m charge linked to sanctions in Libya. Production revenue for the first three months [...]
Revenues fall at Citigroup as costs rise April 18, 2011 CITIGROUP yesterday revealed a slump in revenues and profits in its quarterly results compared to last year, emphasising the bank’s ongoing fight to rein in its backlog of struggling consumer business lines. Revenues dropped 22 per cent year-on-year to $19.7bn (£12.1bn), but the figure was a seven per cent improvement on the fourth-quarter of 2010. [...]
Patchy progress across the group’s businesses continues to dog Pandit April 18, 2011 CITI’S stock price shot up out of the gate yesterday, rising to $4.50 by lunchtime in New York (or $45, as we’ll learn to call it soon after the group’s upcoming “reverse stock split”, which merges every ten shares into one). That a 5.7 per cent slump in pre-tax profits was enough to beat expectations [...]
Jupiter funds enjoy fresh investment April 18, 2011 JUPITER, the fund management firm run by Edward Bonham Carter (pictured), brother of actress Helena, has seen £333m of net inflows over the first three months of this year despite volatile market conditions. The strong inflows, helped by demand from international investors, boosted assets under management (AUM) to £24.5bn. Mutual funds contributed fresh investments worth [...]
Major Actelion investor backs board over activist April 18, 2011 ACTIVIST hedge fund Elliott Advisors suffered a setback in its battle with Swiss biotech company Actelion yesterday after a major shareholder backed the firm’s board. BB Biotech, which holds almost five per cent of Actelion’s shares, said it would back all the board’s proposals in the annual meeting on 5 May. It means about 15 [...]
CITY VIEWS: COULD THE US CREDIT OUTLOOK DOWNGRADE TRIGGER ANOTHER CRISIS? April 18, 2011 ASHLEY KEET | CLARKSONS “No, I think the institutions are better prepared, but funding will be more expensive now. Obama is not taking the hard line like the UK has, but their recovery looks more stable.” MATTHEW PAIN | NEWLINE GROUP “Yes, I think there are many indicators of a possible double dip recession in [...]
Fujitsu may not hit broadband target April 18, 2011 THE TRUE cost of rolling out fibre broadband to 5m homes in rural areas could dwarf the figures being discussed by Fujitsu, according to industry experts. Analysts at RBS have placed the cost of providing fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) to rural areas at around £4.5bn – far above the £1.5bn to £2bn projected by Fujitsu. The Japanese [...]
