High food prices to continue February 24, 2011 The US government yesterday warned that the world is to face extremely high food prices for a prolonged period despite efforts to reduce levels by planting more crops. It could take take several years to restore stocks of wheat, corn and soyabeans to comfortable levels, the US Department of Agriculture said, and until then farm-gate [...]
AIA warns on Asia competition February 24, 2011 Asia’s third-largest insurer AIA beat forecasts with a 54 per cent jump in 2010 net profit yesterday, but warned that a slowdown in regional equity markets could cloud the outlook for future earnings growth. Competition from rivals such as Prudential and Chinese players such as Ping An looking to expand in Asia’s fast-growing insurance market [...]
News Corp nears BSkyB deal with OFT February 24, 2011 RUPERT Murdoch’s News Corp is closing in on a deal with regulators over its £7.8bn bid for broadcaster BSkyB, sources said yesterday. The media group is close to agreeing a series of undertakings with the Office of Fair Trading that would satisfy its concerns that a takeover would unduly concentrate the UK’s media sector. The [...]
Iceland set to pay £100m full year dividend February 24, 2011 SUPERMARKET chain Iceland Foods is to pay an £100m dividend this year to management and creditors of its former Icelandic bank owners, for the first time in three years. Iceland is expected to report a bounceback in revenues and profits this year as budget-conscious shoppers turned to its stores and the dividend would be paid [...]
ASSANGE TO APPEAL EXTRADITION RULING February 24, 2011 WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face sexual offence allegations, a judge ruled yesterday. The extradition under a European Arrest Warrant to face one charge of rape and three of sexual assault would not breach Assange’s human rights, the judge said. Assange said the decision was a rubberstamping process but was [...]
RBS revival on track despite Irish turmoil February 24, 2011 RBS has finally returned to operating profit, generating £2.01bn versus a loss of £6.23bn last year and meeting or overshooting most of chief executive Stephen Hester’s targets for his five-year recovery plan. However, the bank is still losing money overall to the tune of £239m pre-tax and £1.23bn after tax. It has been hit particularly [...]
Hester says?untenable war on pay is driving away bank’s most talented staff February 24, 2011 RBS is losing its best staff due to the stringent pay conditions imposed upon it by the government, said chief executive Stephen Hester yesterday. He told City A.M. that “regretted losses” – losses of the bank’s most valued staff despite efforts to keep them – are going up. “They’re too high. They need to come [...]
Retail banking helps ease losses at Credit Agricole February 24, 2011 FRENCH bank Credit Agricole posted a smaller-than-feared quarterly loss of €328m (£280.6m) yesterday, having warned that its stake in Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo had suffered a €1.25bn writedown. Operating profit rose to €687m from €41m a year earlier, helped by French retail and falling provisions. The bank’s revenues rose 12 per cent, though costs also rose [...]
Tax bill is double that of its rivals February 24, 2011 RBS and its staff paid £3.9bn to the Treasury in taxes last year, the bank has revealed. The amount is almost double the UK?tax bills paid by other banks like Barclays and Goldman Sachs, because of the bank’s size and its concentration in the UK. The high costs of its taxes is despite the fact [...]
IRELAND EXACERBATES PAINFULLY SLOW RECOVERY February 24, 2011 THE Qataris might be making positive noises about snapping up the government’s bank stakes, but it will be some time before they are ready to buy shares in troubled RBS. Yesterday investors got more of the same from chief executive Stephen Hester: steady but painfully slow progress. It was Ireland, that troubled Emerald Isle, which [...]
