National Australia scraps bid for Axa September 14, 2010 NATIONAL Australia Bank (NAB) scrapped its £7.95bn (A$13.3bn) bid for Axa Asia Pacific Holdings yesterday, which would have seen it buy the Australian and New Zealand branches of the wealth management firm. The move came after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission blocked the deal for a second time last week. “Continuing with this agreement [...]
Lloyds Group tops ombudsman’s list for most complaints September 14, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group topped the list of financial services companies that consumers have registered complaints with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) about in the last six months, its latest figures revealed yesterday. Government-backed Lloyds TSB, was the subject of some 12,750 complaints during the six-month period. That was almost 5,000 more than Barclays Bank, which [...]
ING and RBS?agree debt deal for Singapore petrochemical project September 14, 2010 ING and Royal Bank of Scotland have launched a much delayed £1bn debt restructuring deal to help fund construction of Singapore’s Jurong Aromatic Corporation’s (JAC) petrochemicals project. The project is now expected to commence operations in 2014 with construction beginning next year. Talks over financing started last year but progress was delayed by poor market [...]
UK is mulling its options for a Green Bank September 14, 2010 Britain has begun the process of setting up its Green Investment Bank to help fund the shift to a low-carbon economy and could make it commercially independent, the minister of state for energy and climate change said yesterday. “We have begun the process of establishing the Green Investment Bank,” Gregory Barker told a CBI event. [...]
Full flights for Gatwick despite drop in traffic September 14, 2010 DESPITE an overall drop in passenger numbers during August, flights leaving Gatwick Airport were close to full after almost 90 per cent of available seats were taken. The latest traffic figures from Gatwick show that on average 87 per cent of available seats on flights leaving from the airport were full, marking a record high [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS September 14, 2010 HOME RETAIL GROUP Nomura has downgraded its rating on Home Retail Group to “reduce”, citing its Argos business. The broker says Argos’ product and demographic problems outweigh its core competitive advantage. The Argos business model is not broken but falling margins, low growth and a lack of product emphasis, in the broker’s view, limit the [...]
Nokia unveils smartphones to rival Apple September 14, 2010 MOBILE phone maker Nokia yesterday unveiled the smartphones its new management team will be fighting with, as it tries to win back market share from Apple and Blackberry. The world’s biggest phone maker, Nokia is engaged in a major management revamp, with the departures of its chief executive and chairman announced last week and its [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 14, 2010 JP Morgan Asset Management The bank’s asset management arm has poached Nick Gartside from Schroders to join as international chief investment officer of fixed income, effective from December. Gartside joined Schroders in 2002 and was most recently the firm’s head of global fixed income. His responsibilities on Schroders’ ISF strategic bond, ISF global bond and [...]
FTSE edges up as hunger for mining shares boosts trading September 14, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading shares edged higher yesterday, matching modest gains on Wall Street following above-forecast US retail sales data, with commodity issues standing out. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was up 1.88 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 5,567.41, marginally extending Monday’s four-month closing high. “The last-minute push higher by bulls gives further evidence [...]
Promising US retail data fuels optimism September 14, 2010 STOCKS were little changed yesterday after promising data from the retail sector fed recent optimism that the economic recovery, while slow, is proceeding. Retailers were a bright spot after data showed US retail sales rose in August for their largest gain in five months. Best Buy’s higher-than-expected quarterly profit and raised outlook validated the government [...]
