Markets plunge on fresh dip fear August 11, 2010 GLOBAL markets plummeted yesterday after the Bank of England cut its growth forecast and the US trade gap widened dramatically intensifying fears of a double-dip recession. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones recorded its biggest loss in six weeks, dropping 2.5 per cent to 10,378.83 and taking the index into negative territory for the year, [...]
UBS to fight plagiarism accusations August 11, 2010 UBS last night said it would “vigorously” fight a potentially embarrassing lawsuit from a small news agency, which has accused the investment bank of lifting copyrighted material for its in-house updates. Energy Intelligence, an oil and gas reporting service, claims UBS reproduced parts of its articles for its own energy newsletter, Daily Oil News. It [...]
Private equity job for Davies August 11, 2010 Former government minister and past chairman of Standard Chartered Mervyn Davies has joined private equity firm Corsair Capital, boosting the specialist financial services investor’s senior management team. Lord Davies joins Corsair, which spun out of JPMorgan Chase in 2006, as vice chairman and partner, based in London. He most recently served as minister of state [...]
Desmond’s Channel Five revolution August 11, 2010 THE inevitable bloodbath occurred at Richard Desmond’s newly acquired Channel Five yesterday as seven directors and more than a quarter of the 300 employees were given their marching orders. The Northern & Shell and Express Group owner has promised further cost savings at the loss-making broadcaster but also an expansion of the programming budget to [...]
MPs told to return pay-off August 11, 2010 FORMER Labour cabinet ministers should hand back the £20,000 pay-off they received on leaving government to apologise for running up a huge budget deficit, the coalition government said yesterday. In an attack that was dismissed as a “gimmick” by Labour, Conservative party chairman Baroness Warsi has written to MPs who served in Gordon Brown’s cabinet, [...]
AIG sounds out appetite for AIA August 11, 2010 American government-backed insurance giant AIG has held talks with Asian sovereign wealth funds including Singapore’s GIC and Temasek over cornerstone investments for its autumn initial public offering (IPO) of AIA, it is understood. National investment corporations from Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar are also thought to have shown an interest in taking large chunks of [...]
Lloyds exposed to resort failure August 11, 2010 British taxpayers are on the hook for millions of pounds of losses after Sea Island, an exclusive US holiday resort part-owned by Lloyds Banking Group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The founding family behind the property hopes to sell it to out of bankruptcy to a consortium of investors for $198m (£126m). At the end [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 11, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES EVERBRIGHT BANK PRICES IPO AT TOP OF RANGE China Everbright Bank, the last of China’s big national lenders to sell shares to the public, is set to raise up to Rmb21.7bn in its initial public offering after pricing its shares at the top end of an indicative range. The country’s 11th-largest bank will [...]
US to tighten rules in wake of flash crash August 11, 2010 US regulators are considering sweeping measures to prevent a repeat of the so-called “flash crash” of 6 May, when the Dow Jones sparked panic by falling 1,000 points in 45 minutes. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) may extend upward and downward limits on stock movements. In June, [...]
Rok shares tank as audit finds big financial failures August 11, 2010 HOUSING repair firm Rok shed nearly half its share value yesterday after it said “serious failings” were found in parts of the business, resulting in the suspension of its finance director. Ashley Martin has been immediately suspended due to a need for “new financial leadership”. The firm said he is not suspected of fraud, but [...]
