ING sells Latin American arm to repay debt July 25, 2011 DUTCH insurance and bank group ING sold virtually all its Latin American insurance operations to a Columbian firm for a better-than-expected €2.68bn (£2.4bn) yesterday. The sale of the businesses to Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana, known as GrupoSura, values the insurance assets at six times its forecast 2011 earnings and 1.8 times its estimated €1.5bn book [...]
Yorkshire Building Society buys Egg assets from Citi July 25, 2011 BRITISH mortgage lender Yorkshire Building Society is to buy the mortgage and savings business of Egg Banking from US bank Citigroup, as Citi continues to sell non-core assets after its bailout during the credit crisis. Yorkshire, owned by its customers, said the Egg businesses it was acquiring comprised of a £2.5bn savings book and a [...]
Deutsche Bank names its CEOs July 25, 2011 DEUTSCHE Bank yesterday appointed two of its top executives as successors to Josef Ackerman, who will be stepping aside next May after 10 years at the helm. Anshu Jain, the head of the UK investment bank, and Germany head Juergen Fitschen have been appointed co-chief executives, ending a lengthy search for the position. The German [...]
Validus takes its $3bn bid hostile July 25, 2011 US reinsurer Validus Holdings took its $3.2bn (£1.9bn) offer to buy Transatlantic Holdings directly to shareholders yesterday after rejecting its rival’s conditions for merger talks. Validus said it was unable to start discussions with Transatlantic because of a “standstill” provision that would have prevented it from pursuing its bid without the approval of Transatlantic’s board. [...]
BoI to avoid state control July 25, 2011 THE Bank of Ireland will become Ireland’s only lender to avoid majority state control after the government announced yesterday that private investors have agreed to buy a stake worth €1.1bn (£971m) in the beleagured bank. The news saw investors make a grab for shares in the country’s biggest lender, whose stock closed up three per [...]
Allied Irish back in black despite €5bn fall in deposits July 25, 2011 ALLIED Irish Banks jumped out of the red yesterday, reporting a pre-tax profit of €260m (£229.6m) for the half-year ended June versus a €2.44bn loss for the same period last year. The bank still posted an underlying loss of €2.6bn due to “continuing elevated bad debts”. Impairments rose from €12.1bn to €15.2bn. And the bank revealed that [...]
RBS Aviation blocks its former boss from £5bn auction process July 25, 2011 ROYAL Bank of Scotland has excluded the former boss of its aircraft leasing business from the $8bn (£5bn) auction of the unit, raising concerns the part-nationalised bank is barring a credible bidder and could short-change the UK taxpayer. Source said Dublin-based aircraft leasing firm Avalon, which is run by Domhnal Slattery, the founder and former [...]
Domino’s to treble spend on marketing July 25, 2011 DOMINO’S Pizza yesterday forecast stronger sales growth in the second half of the year after reporting a 15 per cent rise in first-half profit. The company, which runs the British and Irish franchises of the global delivery brand, is planning to treble marketing spend in the second half compared with the same period last year, [...]
Netflix disappoints investors July 25, 2011 NETFLIX, the top US video rental company, reported second-quarter revenue that fell short of expectations and saw shares drop with a caution that subscriber growth would slow in the third quarter. The company said quarterly earnings rose to $68m (£41.8m), or $1.26 a share, from $38m, or 70 cents a share, in the same period [...]
Dixons wins deal with Harrods July 25, 2011 STRUGGLING electricals retailer Dixons – which has been trying to find a way to offset falling sales – has signed up to run the consumer electronics section at Harrods. The unlikely partnership comes after a spat in which Dixons directly tried to steal customers from Harrods by encouraging people to browse at the upmarket store [...]
