Protests mar BP’s meeting April 14, 2011 BP management faced angry protests from shareholders yesterday, as investors concerned about Russian deals, tar sands projects and the Gulf of Mexico disaster gave the company a bloody nose in the annual vote. BP said yesterday that prospective Russian partner Rosneft has given the firm more time to clear the path for its £10bn share [...]
US house approves deal on Budget bill April 14, 2011 AT the eleventh hour, the US House of Representatives yesterday approved a Budget deal cutting $38bn (£23.2bn) in spending for the current fiscal year, enabling the government to keep operating until 30 September. The House passed the bill by a vote of 260 to 167, and sent it to the Senate, which was set to [...]
SHAREHOLDER VIEWS: WERE YOU HAPPY WITH BP’S AGM? April 14, 2011 “It was a very good BP shareholder meeting, and I’ve been to a few. I think the board were very forthright and got their points across. I had some questions about the Gulf and the chief executive answered them in his speech.” JAMIE JOHN | BRIDGEND “I was mostly interested in how my shares were [...]
Google cost surge sees investors flee April 14, 2011 GOOGLE posted a 15 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to $2.89bn (£1.76bn) in its first-quarter results last night, but investor panic over a 34 per cent surge in costs saw its shares dive by 5.4 per cent in after-hours trading. Costs ballooned to $5.78bn, with sales and marketing spending rising 69 per cent to [...]
Terry Smith launches an attack on share buybacks April 14, 2011 MAVERICK investor Terry Smith attacked share buybacks as a tool to destroy shareholder value and called for a review of their use yesterday. Smith, an outspoken financier who launched fund manager Fundsmith last year, attacked the practice of using buybacks to raise companies’ earnings per share figure by cutting the number of shares in circulation. [...]
Fisher: Banks will cope after SLS April 14, 2011 BANKS are well on the way to preparing for the end of the Bank of England’s special liquidity scheme, according to Bank executive director Paul Fisher. In a paper on the Bank’s collateral policy published yesterday, Fisher said: “The banks have made good, early progress in reducing their use of the scheme, unwinding the collateral [...]
Bank of Ireland reduces its loss as it promises an update on capital raising April 14, 2011 BANK of Ireland surprised the market yesterday when it announced it scaled back its losses last year, but warned its future remains challenging. It reported full-year losses of €609m (£544m), compared to €1.76bn in 2009, after negotiating a string of tough write-downs with its bondholders. However, the group is still staring down the barrel of [...]
ICELAND TO START REPAYMENTS IN SUMMER April 14, 2011 ICELAND will begin making debt repayments to Britain and the Netherlands this summer, using funds raised from the sale of assets from one of its collapsed banks, the country’s Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir (pictured) said yesterday. The country’s coalition government survived a vote of no confidence earlier in the week.
Next boss gets £1m bonus April 14, 2011 Next boss Lord Wolfson was handed a £1m bonus for last year, taking his total remuneration to around £1.75m. Next reported a nine per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £551m in the year ending January. Cost savings boosted the figures as the chain suffered a four per cent fall in same-store retail sales. Next [...]
No European banks for ICBC April 14, 2011 Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s biggest bank by market value, plans to increase its global footprint by setting up new branches in countries such as Brazil, India and Pakistan, its chairman said yesterday. But ICBC is not considering acquiring European banks in the near term, chairman Jiang Jianqing said. The bank aims [...]
