Resolution rises on deal plans but bosses half-miss cash call June 30, 2010 RESOLUTION shares made their steepest one-day gain in eight months yesterday as the insurance consolidation vehicle released details of its rights issue and £2.8bn takeover of AXA UK. Resolution’s paper, which has slumped since November, rose five per cent to 63p in the first trading since it was suspended a fortnight ago. Analysts and investors’ [...]
Patience is the key to reap the rewards from the Asian tiger June 30, 2010 THE Asian tiger may have lost some of its growl with the US Conference Board cutting its growth forecast for China just two days ago, but Standard Chartered is betting on a revival. This agreement is StanChart’s first significant partnership with a big Chinese lender and brings the UK-based bank into line with global rivals [...]
INSURERS STRAP IN FOR BLUNT’S MILE-HIGH RECORD-BREAKING GIG June 30, 2010 EVER wanted to watch James Blunt sing his heart out – live – at 42,000 feet? No, neither have we, but let’s not diminish Royal Sun Alliance’s (RSA) achievement in breaking the Guinness World Record for the world’s highest altitude live music show. The insurance group has kicked off its 300th anniversary celebrations with gusto [...]
RSM Tenon picks up gems from Vantis June 30, 2010 RSM Tenon, the fully listed UK accounting and business services group, yesterday bought certain business assets from its rival Vantis, which collapsed on Tuesday evening. RSM, which moved to the main market in May this year, is buying businesses worth up to £6.8m from the administrators of Vantis, taking 325 people on board. Chief executive [...]
Insider trading fine for ex-Soc Gen boss June 30, 2010 FORMER Societe Generale investment bank head Jean-Pierre Mustier has been fined €100,000 (£81,950) by France’s AMF financial regulator over insider trading as the financial crisis began. Former SocGen non-executive director Robert Day has been cleared as part of the same investigation, the AMF said yesterday. The watchdog said that Mustier had access to inside information [...]
Worst quarter for stocks since 2008 June 30, 2010 THE stock market closed out a painful second quarter yesterday and left investors with heavy losses and far more doubts about the economy than they had just months ago. Stocks had their worst quarterly performance since the financial crisis. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, considered by many professional investors to be the best measure [...]
Pick a moment and hold on for property gains June 30, 2010 WITH the trajectory of the UK real estate market far from clear, property investment might seem like a risky business. But many UK property-tracking exchange-traded funds (ETF) have nonetheless seen steady asset inflows in the last year since prices began to recover in 2009. ETFs offer exposure to property without the long-term commitment of buying [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT STOCK MARKET TURBULENCE? June 30, 2010 PETER WALTON | BT “It is always going up or down. The uncertainty does make it difficult for institutional investors to manage very large portfolios. It goes up or down for often unknown reasons, and I don’t get too concerned about short-term undulations in the indices.” ANGIE TABBINER | CITY OF LONDON “I wouldn’t say [...]
AIG’s Sullivan says risks were not clear June 30, 2010 BRITISH-born former AIG chief executive Martin Sullivan yesterday admitted he did not know in 2005 about the huge increase in risk the firm’s financial products unit had taken on. A US inquiry panel investigating the financial crisis yesterday quizzed Sullivan and other former AIG bosses including Joseph Cassano, who ran AIG’s financial products arm in [...]
BBC executives face 8.3pc pay cut in two years June 30, 2010 THE BBC’s top executives will take a voluntary 8.3 per cent pay cut over the next two years, the chairman of the broadcaster’s sovereign body, Sir Michael Lyons said yesterday. The new deal will mean working 12 months for 11 months’ salary. He also called for director-general Mark Thompson to be open with licence fee [...]
