BarCap set to gain broking mandate at 3i March 8, 2011 BARCLAYS Bank’s fast growing equities business BarCap was last night said to be close to winning an important new broking appointment at the international private equity group 3i. 3i has been conducting a regular review of its brokers, which are currently Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP?Morgan. The group, whose chief executive is Michael [...]
ABI NAMES OTTO THORESEN NEW DIRECTOR-GENERAL March 8, 2011 OTTO Thoresen, the chief executive of Aegon’s UK arm, has been named as the new director-general of the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The trade association for insurance, investment and savings has been overseen by Maggie Craig, ABI’s director for life and savings, since Kerrie Kelly left last summer after just six months in the [...]
Deutsche Telekom, Sprint eye US tie-up March 8, 2011 DEUTSCHE Telekom has held talks with larger rival Sprint Nextel over a potential sale of T-Mobile USA in exchange for a 50 per cent stake each in the combined company, sources said yesterday. The company has made no secret of the fact that it has held talks with smaller companies such as Clearwire and Harbinger-backed [...]
Credit Suisse client in court March 8, 2011 A CREDIT Suisse client pleaded guilty in US federal court yesterday to evading taxes, confirming that the bank has become tangled in the US government’s latest wave of tax evasion probes. Defendant Edward Gurary, of Ohio, was originally charged with hiding assets at accounts at Swiss bank UBS, but he now also admits he hid [...]
Madoff trustee has won $9.8bn March 8, 2011 THE trustee seeking money for investors hurt by Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme said he hopes to begin distributing money “in the near future” but that lawsuits challenging his efforts are causing delays. Irving Picard, the trustee, said he has won $9.8bn (£6bn) in recoveries since the fraud was uncovered in December 2008. But most of [...]
Greek yields rise as it sells €1.6bn T-bills March 8, 2011 Greece’s Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) sold €1.625bn (£1.4bn) of 6-month T-bills yesterday, with the yield rising by 11 basis points compared to an auction held last month. The sale was well covered with the bid-cover ratio at 3.6 versus 4.54 in the previous auction. Greece paid a yield of 4.75 per cent, up from [...]
London still at top for metal trade March 8, 2011 LONDON led the way last year as the top exchange centre for trading of non-ferrous metals, with a 90 per cent share of the record 120.3m contracts turned over. Overall, exchange trading of commodities such as gold and silver surged by 20 per cent in 2010 as their popularity as well as the ease of [...]
EU stress tests easier than 2010 March 8, 2011 THE European Banking Authority (EBA) yesterday began rolling out stress tests on 88 of the region’s banks, which together hold 65 per cent of EU assets. Europe has promised a more credible set of tests after only seven banks failed the last round in 2010 – none of them Irish, despite the subsequent nationalisation of [...]
Airlines slam BAA reaction to snow chaos March 8, 2011 HEATHROW operator BAA came in for stiff criticism in front of the transport select committee yesterday, with airlines slamming the firm’s handling of the snow in December. Executives from Virgin Atlantic and British Airways told the committee that BAA’s organisation problems left thousands stranded. “At the end of the day, if the airport operators do [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF ANTOFAGASTA’S RESULTS? March 8, 2011 MICHAEL STARKE | EDISON The firm had an exceptional year, with copper prices pushing revenues up and operational profits almost doubling. The huge dividend reflects that fact. The question is whether it will be able to repeat this – we’ve seen some profit taking today from those who think that Antofagasta has peaked. CHARLES COOPER [...]
