BHP Billiton foiled again November 3, 2010 Canada’s rejection of BHP Billiton’s $39bn (£24.7bn) hostile bid for Potash Corp leaves the Anglo-American mining giant adrift. Chief executive Marius Kloppers has been extolling the importance of the takeover for months, but with just 30 days to deal with the government’s serious objections, it seems the blockbuster bid has all but run out of [...]
General Motors unveils its IPO details in a bid to raise $13bn November 3, 2010 GENERAL Motors (GM) yesterday finalised terms for a stock offering of $13bn to repay a controversial taxpayer-funded bailout and reduce the US Treasury to a minority shareholder. The automaker, led by boss Dan Akerson, plans to sell 365m common shares, or 24 per cent of its common stock, at $26 to $29 each, raising about [...]
SocGen sees income more than double November 3, 2010 SOCIETE Generale reported group income more than doubled in the third quarter compared to a year earlier as a result of healthy retail banking activities with growth in international retail banking revenues. It said group income increased €900m (£787m) in the third quarter taking total income for the first nine months to €3bn compared to [...]
Tube strikes caused major delays but failed to paralyse London yesterday November 3, 2010 A THIRD wave of tube strikes failed to paralyse the capital yesterday as London Underground maintained around 40 per cent of trains despite the walkout. Speculation that another strike will take place over Christmas and New Year eased after the Transport Salaried Staffs Association said they will not recommend the action to its members. Some [...]
Time to reverse global imbalances November 3, 2010 THIS has been a pivotal year for global economies. But if 2010 is the pivot then next year will be the fulcrum. 2011 is likely to be the year for developing economies to crowbar the debt-laden west out of its economic woes. Archimedes of Syracuse once boasted that if he stood in the right place [...]
Santander UK float rocked by chief’s exit November 3, 2010 SANTANDER faces an uphill struggle to float its UK operations successfully on the London Stock Exchange next year, after chief executive António Horta-Osório’s shock defection to Lloyds Banking Group. Santander – which last night confirmed it had appointed Ana Patricia Botín, daughter of veteran group chairman Emilio Botín, to replace Horta-Osório – confirmed last week [...]
Lloyds scores coup with appointment of Horta-Osorio November 3, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group investors yesterday breathed a sigh of relief after the bank managed to lure Santander’s highly-respected UK chief António Horta-Osório to replace departing chief executive Eric Daniels. The appointment, which came as a bolt out of the blue, was immediately viewed as a coup by those who doubted Lloyds’ ability to attract a [...]
Lloyds November 3, 2010 IT was a Spanish newspaper report rather than a falling share price that prompted Lloyds to rush out the news that Antonio Horta-Osorio was set to take the reins yesterday. However, the overdone sell-off that followed the bank’s third quarter update on Tuesday, which sent the firm’s stock down 3.2 per cent, provided proof that [...]
WHAT DOES HORTA-OSORIO’S MOVE MEAN FOR SANTANDER AND LLOYDS? November 3, 2010 JOE DICKERSON | EXECUTION NOBLE Horta-Osorio has the experience to see Lloyds through its restructuring efforts, but it is interesting, to say the least, that he decides to leave ahead of a flotation. NIC CLARKE | CHARLES STANLEY The market didn’t think Horta-Osorio could be prised away from Santander, especially with its UK IPO on [...]
CITY SUPER WOMAN BEATS THE BIG BOYS November 3, 2010 CITY SUPER WOMAN BEATS THE BIG BOYS THIS past year hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park for corporate financiers, with company IPOs dropping like flies – particularly in the first half of the year – as nervous investors quaked in their boots. But in that kind of climate, of course, the best really [...]
