Bankia forced to offer investors cut-price float July 18, 2011 BANKIA, the Spanish caja group, was forced to cut its float price drastically yesterday as Eurozone turmoil threatened to derail a deal seen as vital to keeping Spain’s banks out of full nationalisation. A source close to the situation reported that those on the deal were considering shrinking its size by €100m last night, after [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 18, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES VIRGIN GROUP NAMES NEW CO-CEOS Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has announced a management reshuffle. Stephen Murphy, chief executive since 2004, will step down at the end of the year to take an advisory position in the group. He will be replaced by co-chief executives: David Baxby, head of Virgin Asia-Pacific and the aviation [...]
Lloyds shake-up as Bostock joins July 18, 2011 THE Royal Bank of Scotland’s restructuring chief, Nathan Bostock is quitting the firm to join its rival, Lloyds Banking Group, as the new head of wholesale banking. Bostock, will replace Truett Tate, the current head of wholesale banking, in early 2012. Truett is set to move to another role as a vice-chairman at Lloyds and [...]
Stress tests denounced by analysts as backward-looking and inconsistent July 18, 2011 THE EU’s second round of stress tests precipitated a sharp fall in European bank shares yesterday after being slammed as “frustrating” and full of “widespread anomalies”. Analysts were scathing about the European Banking Authority’s (EBA) first ever tests, keeping price recommendations unchanged and saying that the exercise was effectively useless as a tool for distinguishing [...]
Moody’s loses patience as US debt talks ramble on July 18, 2011 CREDIT rating agency Moody’s said yesterday that the US should scrap its debt ceiling entirely. The legislative cap creates “periodic uncertainty”, Moody’s argued, suggesting that America could adopt a “fiscal rule” to restrain deficit build-ups instead. The statement preceded another day of political sparring in the US. The possibility of America defaulting on its debts is “off [...]
Yates of Yard falls on sword over hacking July 18, 2011 ASSISTANT police commissioner John Yates yesterday followed the example set by his former boss and quit over the hacking scandal yesterday. His resignation had been widely expected after his judgement was called into question over his decision not to reopen the phone hacking investigation in 2009 and his relationship with former News of the World [...]
Lord Grabiner to oversee new damage limitation vehicle July 18, 2011 LORD Anthony Grabiner QC will head up News Corp’s new damage-limitation vehicle, named the Management and Standards Committee (MSC). He will be responsible for proving News Corp is willing to investigate wrongdoing and work with police over the hacking scandal. The 66-year-old, famed for his no-nonsense approach, became a household name in 2010 when he won [...]
ANOTHER DAY OF TURMOIL FOR MURDOCH EMPIRE July 18, 2011 8:30am Mayor of London Boris Johnson says Met assistant commissioner John Yates should face difficult questions following the resignation of his boss Sir Paul Stephenson. He singles out Yates’ relationship with former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis, who was employed by the Met. Ministers were not informed of the hire. 10:15am David [...]
Tom Alexander quits Everything Everywhere July 18, 2011 THE tale – probably apocryphal – of Alexander’s appointment at Orange is that, over dinner, he was asked by a senior director what he would do if he was in charge. The director was so blown away by the vision, he asked Alexander to run the company. Four years later, after the merger with T-Mobile, [...]
Glencore seals agreement to buy £295m Peruvian copper assets July 18, 2011 COMMODITIES giant Glencore confirmed its agreement to acquire $475m (£295m) of copper assets in Peru yesterday. The deal was struck between its subsidiary Glencore International and Hong Kong-based CST Mining and will see Glencore take a 70 per cent stake in Marcobre, the owner of the Mina Justa copper project in southern Peru. The takeover [...]
