This is good news for the whole sector March 21, 2011 DE JA VU anyone? A big mobile operator gets together with a smaller German-owned rival, allowing it to leapfrog its way to the top of the pile. This deal bears a remarkable similarity to the merger of the British operations of Orange and T-Mobile. As telecoms anoraks will know, that deal – which created the dystopian-sounding [...]
Citi to merge shares and pay dividend March 21, 2011 CITIGROUP has joined the American bank stampede to hand capital back to shareholders following the Fed’s decision on Friday to remove its ban on dividend hikes. The bank announced yesterday that it will reinstate a $0.01 quarterly dividend and, in a bid to ditch the stigma of being a “penny stock”, will implement a reverse [...]
Barclays offloads toxic assets but Protium still awaits buyer March 21, 2011 BARCLAYS has managed to offload $586m (£359m) of toxic assets to an American real estate investment trust (REIT), but investors are waiting to hear about the sale of Protium, the £7.5bn’s worth of toxic assets that Barclays converted into a loan in 2009. The bank would not say what profit or loss it made on [...]
Charles Schwab buys brokerage March 21, 2011 US broker Charles Schwab will buy smaller retail brokerage optionsXpress in a $1bn (£620m) deal aimed at helping Schwab take advantage of investors’ stronger embrace of options. The all-stock deal values optionsXpress at $17.91 per share, a 17 per cent premium over its $15.33 closing price on Friday. Under the terms of the deal, each [...]
Apollo lowers IPO price range March 21, 2011 PRIVATE equity firm Apollo Global Management yesterday lowered the expected price range for its initial public offering, filing detailed terms with US regulators almost a week later than originally expected. Apollo plans to sell 26.3m shares for $17 (£14.81) to $19 each, according to a filing with the regulators. Last week Apollo, co-founded by chief [...]
FOUR-FOUR-CLUELESS March 21, 2011 FORMER England manager Glenn Hoddle believes Fabio must ditch his favoured 4-4-2 formation or risk missing out on qualifying for next summer’s European Championship. England currently trail leaders Montenegro by three points in qualifying Group G, albeit having played a game less, following their goalless draw at Wembley last October which again showcased Capello’s tactical [...]
Woods eyes Masters March 21, 2011 FORMER World No1 Tiger Woods believes his game is coming together in time for The Masters next month. The 14-time major winner has not won a major tournament since 2008, but having been out of the game for long periods due to injury and the breakdown of his marriage, he says he is now rediscovering [...]
Ofgem in last warning for the Big Six March 21, 2011 ENERGY suppliers were yesterday issued with a “last chance” warning over soaring gas and electricity bills. The “big six” companies – British Gas owner Centrica, EDF, npower, E.on, Scottish Power and SSE – were told by the industry watchdog Ofgem they face a full-scale inquiry if they do not clean up their act. They have [...]
Gooch insists England can go one better than class of ‘92 March 21, 2011 FORMER England captain Graham Gooch believes Andrew Strauss’ side have the fighting spirit to go on and lift the World Cup. England have reached the final three times in 1979, 1987 and in 1992 when Gooch was skipper – but lost every time. And Gooch, who is part of the management team as a batting [...]
Centrica’s US unit agrees to buy New York rival for £55m in cash March 21, 2011 CENTRICA has reported that its North American subsidiary, Direct Energy, has agreed to acquire the New York-based energy retailer Gateway Energy Services for $90m (£55m) in cash. Gateway has more than 275,000 gas and electricity customer accounts, located mainly in New York State, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This acquisition will further strengthen Direct Energy’s position [...]
