ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE LATEST FIGURES AND DO THEY SHOW THE REAL PICTURE? March 17, 2010 HETAL MEHTA | ERNST & YOUNG ITEM CLUB Today’s data gives yet more weight to the idea that the labour market is performing better than the economy as a whole. Not only has unemployment fallen significantly, while it is unusual to see unemployment fall at this stage of the cycle, the detailed figures do not [...]
Pru backs top man over new SocGen role March 17, 2010 PRUDENTIAL has defended chief executive Tidjane Thiam’s decision to take a second board role at another company in the middle of the firm’s gargantuan takeover of American International Assurance. Thiam is due to be nominated as a non-executive director of French bank Société Générale in May, and will start a four-year term in the summer. [...]
Our City panel is worried about the public purse March 17, 2010 HUGE FEARS over the state of the public finances underpin our panel’s view that the government should cut spending soon after the general election. The majority of panelists (59 per cent) said they were very worried about the public finances, while 32 per cent said they were fairly worried. Just eight per cent of respondents [...]
GREECE FLIRTS WITH IMF AID March 17, 2010 GREEK Prime Minister George Papandreou warned yesterday he could turn to the International Monetary Fund for support if EU leaders failed to come up with an acceptable rescue package at their next summit on 25 March. Finland, the Netherlands and Italy are all in favour of turning to the IMF for financial aid if Athens [...]
S&S makes initial offer for EDF March 17, 2010 Scottish & Southern Energy has made an indicative offer for the UK distribution network of French power company EDF, its finance director confirmed yesterday. “We have put in an indicative bid, it’s at a very early stage of the process,” finance director Gregor Alexander said on the sidelines of an energy conference in London. Alexander [...]
ABP sues Bank of America March 17, 2010 Dutch pension fund ABP, the world’s third largest, has sued Bank of America saying it withheld vital information in 2008 about its Merrill Lynch takeover that would have led ABP to reject the deal. “Prior to the merger date, BofA appear to have had knowledge of record quarterly losses Merrill was facing. The losses were [...]
Bellzone Mining set for AIM IPO March 17, 2010 Bellzone Mining said yesterday it expects to join London’s AIM on 31 March raising cash to develop its iron projects. The iron ore miner is raising $100m (£65m) and said it expected its market capitalisation to be between £265m and £400m, depending on the pricing of its shares. It would be the largest IPO on AIM [...]
Nomura elects first foreigner to board March 17, 2010 Nomura has appointed its first foreigner to the board, as part of a change in management structure aimed at supporting its global expansion. Former Lehman Brothers executive Jasjit “Jesse” Bhattal will be the first foreigner to take up a place on the bank’s 10-strong executive management board. As of 1 April, Bhattal, who was born [...]
FSA to boost its firepower in hiring spree March 17, 2010 THE Financial Services Authority (FSA) said yesterday it would boost its 3,300 workforce by 460 as part of its bid to take a tougher approach to policing the industry. The City watchdog said the hiring spree would mean yearly staff costs would increase by £47.7m to £350m this year, with its overall budget increasing by [...]
Generali profit jumps 52 per cent March 17, 2010 Assicurazioni Generali, Europe’s third largest insurer, reported a rise in profit in 2009, but weak non-life operations meant it missed analysts expectations. The net profit of €1.309bn, up 52 per cent from 2008, compared with a market estimate of €1.417bn. The cash dividend of €0.35 per share also missed expectations of €0.41 a share. In [...]
