Investors balk at bad news February 10, 2011 INVESTORS didn’t like the bevy of bad news from Credit Suisse. Lower profits – and lower expectations in the medium term – were compounded by a bigger-than-expected drop in the dividend. Shares lost almost six per cent yesterday to close down at SwFr42.10 (£27). Chief executive Brady Dougan will likely be miffed. In many ways, he has steered [...]
Hargreaves lambasts bill for bust firms February 10, 2011 THE FOUNDER of fund manager Hargreaves Lansdown has warned a controversial compensation scheme could put firms out of business, resulting in spiralling costs for the financial services industry. Peter Hargreaves said the Financial Services Compensations Scheme (FSCS) levy, which hit his firm for £3m last year, said some companies would be unable to pay the [...]
Bloomberg backs merger of Deutsche Boerse and NYSE February 10, 2011 NEW York Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday gave his full-throated support to Deutsche Boerse’s planned takeover of NYSE Euronext. He said of the proposed deal: “It’s going to give us access to Europe, and Europe access to the US in a way our competitors like London will not have.” However, the deal is likely to face [...]
BP’s Russian deal is put on hold until March by arbitration panel February 10, 2011 BP must wait until at least March to learn the fate of its £10bn share-swap with Russian oil firm Rosneft, after an arbitration tribunal yesterday extended the injunction blocking the deal. Russian investor group AAR, which owns half of BP’s Russian venture TNK-BP, obtained an injunction last week to halt the deal until 25 February [...]
BLACKS LEISURE CHIEF TO STEP DOWN February 10, 2011 NEIL Gillis, chief executive of Blacks Leisure, has announced he will leave his role, two weeks after the outdoors retailer said it had been unsuccessful in its search for a bidder. Gillis, who has been chief executive at Blacks since November 2007, will not receive a payoff, and will work his six months notice period. [...]
Dotcom fears amid $10bn Twitter talks February 10, 2011 FEARS that a second dotcom bubble is rising grew yesterday, with Google and Facebook both understood to be in talks to buy Twitter for up to $10bn (£6.23bn). The Silicon Valley giants are in “very speculative” negotiations to take control of the hugely popular microblogging site for a valuation of between $8-10bn, according to people [...]
Rose’s last hurrah at Rolls as it posts rising revenue February 10, 2011 ENGINE-MAKER Rolls-Royce reported a four per cent rise in underlying annual pre-tax profit to £955m yesterday, and told investors most of the costs linked to last year’s A380 engine problems have been dealt with. The results announcement was the last for chief executive Sir John Rose, who retires next month and will be replaced by [...]
Pepsi lowers its targets February 10, 2011 PEPSI cut its earnings growth targets for 2011 and beyond yesterday, citing higher commodity costs, a difficult economy and investments in emerging markets. Chief executive Indra Nooyi, who was peppered with tough questions by analysts during a tense conference call, said the lowered longer-term outlook was prudent given the uncertain economic conditions. “We have no [...]
Kraft hit by Cadbury and commodities February 10, 2011 KRAFT FOODS saw its quarterly income drop 24 per cent on last year as the cost of taking over UK confectioner Cadbury began to bite. Net income at the owner of Oreo cookies and Philadelphia cheese fell to $540m (£335.5m) from $710m a year ago, in part due to costs linked to Cadbury and to [...]
Thomson Reuters sees revenue lift February 10, 2011 THOMSON Reuters yesterday said it expects revenue to rise in 2011 after stronger growth in the fourth quarter and more signs that its financial and professional customers are recovering from the recession. The company, which provides news and information to financial, legal, accounting and healthcare professionals, expects 2011 revenue to rise by a “mid-single digit” [...]
