Prudential charm offensive pays off as a £23bn deal looks likely March 9, 2010 PRUDENTIAL is confident its investors will give the green light to a record breaking £14bn rights issue after the second day of a charm offensive. Chief executive Tidjane Thiam flew back to London for face-to-face talks with key investors to convince them the deal to buy the Asian operations of American Insurance International –?AIA –? [...]
Lord Paul says he will give up his non domicile status March 9, 2010 Labour donor Lord Paul will give up his “non-dom” status amid the furore over Lord Ashcroft. The Indian-born businessman said he will step into line with new regulations that will ban peers in the House of Lords from not paying tax in the UK on money earned abroad. He insisted his case was far removed [...]
Cisco speeds up internet twelve-fold March 9, 2010 Cisco Systems has introduced a new router that it says will handle internet traffic 12 times faster than rival products, as it looks to compete with rivals such as Juniper Networks. The router, Cisco’s first major upgrade in six years, is aimed at helping operators handle surging internet use driven by increasingly popular smartphones such [...]
Sony to launch 3D televisions March 9, 2010 Sony will launch 3D televisions in June, entering an increasingly crowded market that is betting the revolutionary TV will become the next hot product in the electronics industry. The maker of Bravia flat TVs predicted yesterday 3D models will make up 10 per cent or more of the 25m LCD TVs it aims to sell [...]
Liberty unveils demerger as profits tumble March 9, 2010 LIBERTY International will split its retail and commercial property businesses in a bid to “achieve greater value for shareholders.” The shopping centres arm of the business will become a real estate investment trust (REIT) called Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) with a market cap of around £2bn. And its London based portfolio will become Capital & [...]
You should shop elsewhere March 9, 2010 LIBERTY didn’t suffer as much as rivals during the recession, which is why it isn’t bouncing back quite so energetically. Consensus forecast for net asset value (NAV) per share was between 480p and 500p, but those expectations were always too high. That said, even the bears were disappointed by the actual NAV per share of [...]
Moody’s threatens UK bank rating downgrades March 9, 2010 RATINGS agency Moody’s warned yesterday that the forthcoming withdrawal of government support to the UK banking sector could trigger a series of downgrades for City banks. Moody’s said the increased likelihood of systemic support from the state or the Bank of England in the case of a further crash had helped buoy its ratings on [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU MORE CONFIDENT ABOUT THE STOCK MARKET? March 9, 2010 WILL STOCKER | ICAP “It’s a little bit early to say. The market has not yet returned to the healthy levels of 18 months ago and we are not out of the doldrums. Globally the markets have picked up but I’ll wait another year before I invest, because there is still so much uncertainty around. [...]
New business surges ahead at Gartmore March 9, 2010 FUND manager Gartmore has seen a strong pick-up in new business over the first two months of the year, when it recorded higher net inflows than in the whole of 2009 following a December market listing. Gartmore chief executive Jeffrey Meyer said net inflows for January and February were £273m, compared to a figure of [...]
Murdoch: Middle East should open up March 9, 2010 RUPERT Murdoch urged Arab governments yesterday to reject media censorship and open their markets to foreign competition as he opened a high-profile conference aimed at furthering oil-rich Abu Dhabi’s ambitions as a cultural hub. The chief executive of News Corp, one of the biggest foreign investors in the region’s media, said economic incentives were more [...]
