How the Eurozone plans to bury its junk bonds in a big derivative October 30, 2011 LAST week’s hotly anticipated Eurozone summit might have been short on details, but it has taken little time for the market’s best financial engineers to concoct their own version of events. Eurozone leaders announced that they will look into two ways of leveraging up their bailout fund by four or five times – insuring losses [...]
Bishop urges St Paul’s camp to keep peace October 30, 2011 THE Bishop of London yesterday urged activists to remain peaceful if moves to evict them from outside St Paul’s prove successful. Dr Richard Chartres told activists that “nobody wants violence” as the 200-tent camp entered its third week. But last night protesters instead promised a new form of dissent – flash mob dances, with Occupy [...]
Court orders Qantas planes off the ground October 30, 2011 QANTAS Airways said it would resume flights today, after an Australian tribunal ordered the airline and its unions to put an immediate end to strikes that left tens of thousands of passengers stranded around the world. Fair Work Australia, an independent industrial umpire, was appointed by the government after Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce made [...]
City says Italy is biggest threat to the Eurozone October 30, 2011 ITALY is the biggest threat to the financial security of the Eurozone, according to our poll of influential City figures. Almost half of those polled said they are most worried about the state of the Italian economy, compared to a quarter about Greece and 13 per cent about Spain. Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (pictured) [...]
Smiths Group boss Bowman in pay u-turn October 30, 2011 THE chief executive of technology firm Smiths Group has bowed to shareholder pressure and abandoned a controversial multi-million pound rewards scheme. Philip Bowman has dropped the value-sharing plan, a complicated scheme that paid out in shares, after opposition from shareholders and the Association of British Insurers. He will instead be subject to a simpler long-term [...]
Treasury looking to LSE to boost lending to small firms October 30, 2011 BOOSTING access to debt markets and forcing state-owned banks to lend to smaller firms are among plans being discussed by the Treasury to increase lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). One idea is to use the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) order book for retail bonds (ORB) market, allowing smaller debt issuances with lower minimum [...]
PwC report shows remuneration of top asset managers is soaring October 30, 2011 THE total pay package of asset managers has risen to an average of £2m after the industry’s biggest firms won new business. New research from PwC shows asset manager remuneration has typically increased by 18 per cent annually. The study, which looked at 25 of the largest asset managers in Europe, also said funds’ salary [...]
Grant Thornton profits strong in tough climate October 30, 2011 PROFESSIONAL services firm Grant Thornton will announce a slight dip in profits in its UK business this morning, a year after income at the firm leapt by 40 per cent. Pre-tax profits at the firm were £75.2m in the year to 30 June 2011, down 0.7 per cent from the record £79.9m they hit last [...]
CVC in a £4bn bid for RBS’s insurance arm October 30, 2011 PRIVATE equity house CVC Capital Partners is believed to have made a £4bn bid for the insurance arm of Royal Bank of Scotland. The bank was forced by the EU to begin a sale of RBS Insurance (RBSI), which trades as Direct Line and Churchill, after receiving a taxpayer bailout in 2008. CVC is believed [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK October 30, 2011 ZULU KING HRH Goodwill Zwelithini gave Shaka Zulu his blessing when the venue opened in July 2010, and so did eight insurance brokers when they visited London’s largest South African restaurant last Thursday. The City party moved out of their culinary comfort zone by trying sliced springbok loin, roasted ostrich fillet, Cape Malay pickled red [...]
