Top US banks shut out of Unicredit deal November 14, 2011 UNICREDIT, one of the most weakly capitalised of Europe’s big banks, has surprisingly left two of the biggest investment banks in the world off the banking syndicate managing its €7.5bn (£6.4bn) rights issue, accusing them of being too demanding in negotiating the terms of the deal. Until last week Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were [...]
Buffett secretly bought up a $10bn stake in IBM November 14, 2011 THE SAGE of Omaha has staked his biggest ever bet on the technology sector after amassing at 5.5 per cent stake in IBM worth $10.7bn (£6.71bn). Warren Buffett, one of the most respected and revered investors in the US, has historically shunned the sector on the grounds he does not understand it. However, he said yesterday [...]
Lender records €10bn loss as its asset values go into freefall November 14, 2011 UNICREDIT plunged back into the red yesterday with a stunning net loss of €10.64bn (£9.1bn) on the back of huge write-downs to its asset pile. Markets, which had been expecting a profitable quarter, ditched the stock, which fell 6.2 per cent by the close of play. The bank also confirmed plans for a €7.5bn rights [...]
BofA to sell off China bank stake November 14, 2011 Bank of America plans to sell most of its remaining stake in China Construction Bank Corp for $6.6bn (£4.1bn) cash in the ailing bank’s latest move to boost capital levels. The bank said last night the new stake sale is expected to generate a gain of about $1.8bn after taxes.
MF Global sued over mass firings November 14, 2011 MF Global Holdings is being sued by former employees for not giving 60 days written notice before last Friday’s firing of all 1,066 at its broker-dealer unit, court filings showed yesterday. Meanwhile the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued a subpoena to Bank of Montreal’s Harris Bank unit, seeking information about customer accounts at [...]
Moody’s: EU is shooting the messenger November 14, 2011 THE HEAD of Moody’s in Europe has fired a broadside at the European Commission for proposing measures that pin the blame on ratings agencies for the euro debt crisis. Speaking to City A.M., senior managing director Frédéric Drevon said: “The proposals appear completely excessive and not proportionate… There is an element here of shooting the [...]
Industry declines in the Eurozone while Portugal falls even deeper into recession November 14, 2011 THE SHADOW of the Eurozone crisis darkened yesterday as more bearish economic data emphasised the single currency area’s woes. Yet another spell of economic contraction was confirmed in Portugal for the third quarter of the year, confirming the bailout-recipient’s lingering double-dip recession. And across the 17-nation Eurozone, industrial production was revealed to have fallen by [...]
Hochtief hit by Greek toll losses November 14, 2011 GERMAN construction group Hochtief revealed it may have to write down the value of its road contracts in Greece due to mass toll dodging. The news accompanied a gloomy outlook for 2012 and a warning that the group might post a loss this year if it fails to sell its airport business on schedule. “The [...]
Labour to get tough on Europe November 14, 2011 SHADOW foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said yesterday that Labour could support the repatriation of some powers to Westminster from the European Union. Alexander called for a “pragmatic” approach and said that power grabbing should not be the top priority, yet also added: “[A] hard headed view of Britain’s national interests should be the hallmark of [...]
Insurers see disaster costs mount in 2011 November 14, 2011 CATASTROPHES this year piled pressure on Lloyd’s insurers Catlin and Hardy Underwriting, with the companies saying high levels of losses this year had cut into their profitability. Catlin said its losses from the spate of disasters experienced this year had risen to $670m (£417m) from $534m initially estimated. It booked $275m in the first quarter [...]
