Investor piles pressure on troubled UBS September 20, 2011 EMBATTLED bank UBS faces new pressure after its largest shareholder broke its silence to criticise the failures that led to the $2.3bn (£1.5bn) “rogue” trading scandal. The Government of Singapore Investment Corp, which has a 6.4 per cent stake in UBS, has met senior managers and urged them to take “firm” action to restore confidence, [...]
Gruebel bids to overhaul investment banking arm September 20, 2011 UBS chief executive Oswald Gruebel will this week ask directors to back plans for a deep overhaul of its investment banking division. The board begins a two-day meeting in Singapore tomorrow although it is understood the sessions were arranged before the “rogue” trading crisis broke. UBS is under pressure to scale down, ringfence or even [...]
Headhunters circling talent at Swiss bank September 20, 2011 BANKS are eyeing the possibility of poaching UBS’s most talented staff, taking advantage of the uncertainty plaguing its investment bank. Recruiters have told City A.M. that there is strong interest in snapping up rising stars from the bank, where this year’s bonus pool for its UK equity capital markets (ECM) team is likely to take a [...]
NAB playing hard to get with Lloyds bidder NBNK September 20, 2011 NATIONAL Australia Bank (NAB) has slapped down suggestions that it could rush headlong into a deal with NBNK Investments, the buy-out vehicle led by Gary Hoffman and Lord Levene. NAB is in talks with NBNK over selling its UK business – the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks – but yesterday insisted that it is in no [...]
United Tech nears all-cash bid to take over Goodrich September 20, 2011 AMERICAN conglomerate United Technologies is negotiating final terms of an all-cash acquisition of aircraft components maker Goodrich with the goal of reaching a deal in the next few days, people familiar with the matter said last night. An acquisition of Goodrich, which has a market capitalisation of about $14bn (£8.9bn), would be the biggest deal [...]
Hedgies fail to beat falling share prices September 20, 2011 MOST hedge fund strategies were wrong-footed by plunging stock markets in August, according to data released yesterday. The EDHEC Risk Institute, which tracks the performance of hedge funds, said managers following a short-selling strategy were the only ones to post significant gains last month, with an average return of 6.97 per cent. Short sellers benefited from [...]
Siemens does flip-flop over SocGen funds September 20, 2011 ENGINEERING group Siemens fluctuated between denial and uncertainty yesterday, as it addressed reports that it had withdrawn more than €500m (£435m) in cash deposits from Société Générale and moved it to the European Central Bank (ECB). Shares in the French bank fell 6.6 per cent by lunchtime yesterday after it was named as the institution [...]
Funding pressure as China pulls out of Eurozone forex September 20, 2011 MONEY market strains worsened yesterday after Standard & Poor’s cut Italy’s credit rating and the Bank of China halted foreign exchange swaps with several European banks. Eurozone bank borrowing at the European Central Bank’s weekly tender surged to €201bn, the highest in seven months in a sign of growing stress in the sector. Three-month dollar [...]
EUROZONE SEARCHES FOR SOLUTION September 20, 2011 German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition agreed a draft law on an enhanced Eurozone bailout fund Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has been locked in bailout talks with the parties funding his bailout ECB president Jean Claude-Trichet urged banks in the Eurozone to strengthen their balance sheets Silvio Berlusconi lashed out at S&P’s downgrade of Italy, claiming [...]
Spanish debt costs rise to three-year high despite solid demand at debt sale September 20, 2011 SPAIN saw the cost of its debt rise to three-year highs at an auction yesterday, despite a solid level of investor demand. Madrid sold at the higher end of its €3.5-4.5bn target range, but buyers demanded yields on the one-year and 18-month bonds that were around 20 basis points higher than at the last equivalent sale. [...]
