Bank of England sticks to its wait-and-see policy approach May 10, 2010 THE Bank of England kept monetary policy on hold yesterday, adopting a wait-and-see attitude in the face of both political and economic uncertainty emanating from Westminster and Greece. As the markets expected, interest rates were kept at their historic low of 0.5 per cent and quantitative easing was on hold at £200bn. Although there are [...]
Estate agents predict bounce in activity and sales post-election May 10, 2010 UNCERTAINTY over the election was not enough to dampen estate agents’ sentiment last month with surveyors expecting a post-election bounce, the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors showed yesterday. A net 17 per cent of estate agents reported rising rather than falling house prices, up from just 9 per cent in March. And the positive sentiment [...]
Goldman set to fight more legal actions May 10, 2010 GOLDMAN Sachs yesterday warned that it is preparing to be swamped with a deluge of further legal actions connected with its role selling complex mortgage-backed financial products, in the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) fraud charges against it. Goldman said in a quarterly regulatory filing that it is preparing to fight more [...]
Nomura pushes back profit target after hit from crisis May 10, 2010 JAPANESE bank Nomura yesterday said it had pushed back its target of achieving a 500bn yen (£3.6bn) profit by a year, though it now sees itself as being on a par with the world’s top tier of investment banks. Nomura had set the goal of posting a pre-tax profit of 500bn yen by the year [...]
Close Brothers arm renamed May 10, 2010 CLOSE Brothers Corporate Finance has been renamed as DC Advisory Partners after being taken over by Japan’s Daiwa in July last year. The firm, which has over 200 staff, plans to open more offices in Europe this year as part of a growth drive in M&A, distressed investment, restructuring and debt advisory services. DC Advisory [...]
Credit Suisse in bid to expand May 10, 2010 CREDIT Suisse is buying the fund services business of Fortis Bank Nederland for an undisclosed sum, the companies said yesterday, as the nationalised Dutch bank continues restructuring. The acquisition of Prime Fund Solutions (PFS), which provides fund services to the alternative asset management industry and has 570 employees, would have a minimal impact on capital, [...]
Sony ups forecasts after cuts pay off May 10, 2010 SONY said it expects to have swung to a surprising annual operating profit in the last financial year and beat forecasts after cost-cutting. The maker of Bravia TVs and Cyber-shot cameras has shed jobs and shut plants due to the global downturn and worked to boost its flat TV division, which has struggled amid fierce [...]
Virgin Active posts strong earnings as expansion kicks in May 10, 2010 HEALTH club operator Virgin Active is poised to go into the black after reporting record underlying earnings of more than £100m yesterday. The group also saw a 15 per cent rise in revenues to £391m after membership at its fitness centres grew by four per cent to 919,000, in the year to December 2009. Net [...]
Unilever hit by buyback revolt May 10, 2010 THREE major Unilever shareholders will vote against proposals to buy back €155m (£133m) of preference shares in a move that could scupper the move. Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever has proposed to cancel the four per cent Unilever cumulative preference shares and to seek authorisation to buy back its six per cent and seven per cent [...]
BA execs walk free as cartel case collapses May 10, 2010 CRIMINAL price-fixing and cartel proceedings against three former British Airways (BA) executives and one current one have been dropped. Yesterday morning Justice Owen directed a jury at the Southwark Crown Court to acquit Alan Burnett, Iain Burns, Martin George and Andrew Crawley of BA of price-fixing charges. The decision came after the Office of Fair [...]
