Liontrust sells credit business April 13, 2011 Asset manager Liontrust has agreed to sell its credit business to Avoca Capital, the boutique Ireland-based leveraged loan specialist, for £3.2m. The sale includes a move for Liontrust’s credit team, as well as its £84m of assets under management (AUM). The credit business represents six per cent of the London-listed asset manager. Liontrust said it [...]
Chi-X Europe keeps second place April 13, 2011 Over €454bn (£403bn) worth of shares were traded on Chi-X Europe in the first-quarter of this year, according to company figures published yesterday. The exchange said its market share increased or remained steady across the major indices, ensuring it maintained its position as the second largest equity exchange in Europe. It added its clients saved [...]
Real estate market picks up April 13, 2011 Property investors are looking to riskier markets such as Spain and emerging Europe, and shunning safer prime European commercial real estate, pushing up investment volumes and prices, research by CB Richard Ellis has shown. Direct investment in prime European commercial property hit €26.7bn in the first-quarter, up 26 per cent on the year. In the [...]
IMF warns banks on debt of $3.6 trillion April 13, 2011 THE world’s banks face a $3.6 trillion “wall of maturing debt” in the next two years and must compete with debt-laden governments to secure financing, the IMF warned yesterday. Many European banks need bigger capital cushions to restore market confidence and assure they can borrow, and some weak players will need to be closed, the [...]
London must fight hard to keep headquarters April 13, 2011 HAVE you ever played Whac A Mole? A menacing, flinty eyed mole pops up out of his hole, and no sooner have you whacked him down than another menacing mole pops out of another hole. However hard you whack, that menace remains. It is the same for those who defend London as a global financial [...]
S&P could cut Iceland to junk April 13, 2011 ICELAND’S credit ratings could be downgraded to junk debt status after its voters rejected a deal to provide a state guarantee for repaying Britain and the Netherlands for losses from the Landsbanki banking crash in 2008, Standard & Poor’s said yesterday. S&P said it put Iceland on its list for a possible downgrade due to [...]
China may invest $13bn in Spain April 13, 2011 CHINESE investors including the country’s sovereign wealth fund may inject $13bn (£8bn) into Spanish banks, a government source said yesterday after Spain’s Premier met financial authorities in Beijing. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is visiting China and Singapore this week, promoting Spain’s sovereign bonds and its financial system as a good investment. Chinese [...]
Unilever fined for EU price fix April 13, 2011 CONSUMER goods giants Unilever and Procter & Gamble were yesterday fined €315.2m (£281m) by EU regulators for fixing washing powder prices in eight EU countries. Germany’s Henkel, which alerted the European Commission to the cartel in laundry detergents, was not fined. The penalty for Unilever was €104m while P&G was fined €211.2m. As part of [...]
Pru repays customers £4m for undervalued pensions April 13, 2011 INSURANCE giant Prudential said yesterday it would repay about £4m in total to 39,000 customers after it admitted making errors in valuing their pension funds. The Pru failed to return tax credits to unit-linked pensions funds held with Scottish Amicable, which transferred to Prudential in 2008, leaving some customers who partly sold or transferred their [...]
BURBERRY UNVEILS FLAGSHIP BEIJING STORE April 13, 2011 LUXURY UK clothing brand Burberry launched its flagship Beijing store yesterday with a fashion show and concert in the Chinese capital, including a digital display of Burberry’s classic trench coats and checked umbrellas. The company expanded its operations in China last year by taking control of its franchised stores in the country, in a £70m [...]
