Hollande hit by Moody’s rating downgrade November 19, 2012 FRENCH President Francois Hollande was hit with yet another downgrade last night, as Moody’s took the Eurozone’s second biggest economy down a ratings peg. In another blow to President Hollande’s fiscal policy, French government debt was cut to an Aa1 rating, from Aaa, following a similar decision from Standard & Poor’s in January. To add [...]
Ocado investors prop up £36m capital raising November 19, 2012 OCADO’S shareholders ploughed more money into the online grocery chain yesterday to support a £36m placing that will keep the firm financially stable for at least 18 months. Existing shareholders including Jorn Rausing of the Tetra Pak dynasty and Ocado’s management team took up around 19 per cent of the shares placed, in line with [...]
Cash boxes explained November 19, 2012 Q What is a cash box placing ? A A cash box placing allows a company to issue new shares by bypassing pre-emption requirements – meaning without shareholder approval – provided they are issued for a non-cash consideration, such as the shares of another company. Q How does the structure work? A The listed company [...]
Shareholders set to approve Glenstrata deal November 19, 2012 XSTRATA shareholders are expected to vote through the £56bn mega-merger with Glencore this afternoon, following months of negotiations between the two commodity giants. Today’s shareholder meetings, the first of which is scheduled for 1pm in Switzerland, come nine months after commodities trader Glencore first approached miner Xstrata. The two meetings will include four resolutions, thanks [...]
FSA’s Bailey says banks should be forced to ring-fence retail November 19, 2012 BRITAIN’S banks should be forced to fully separate their retail arms from investment banking operations if they try to circumvent new rules designed to protect the taxpayer, a top regulator warned. Andrew Bailey, head of banking supervision at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), said banks should face the threat of being broken up if they [...]
G20 takes aim at shadow banking November 19, 2012 THE GLOBAL financial regulator formed by the G20 has revealed its bid to take tighter control of the shadow banking sector. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) said that it would seek to regulate the industry and thereby reduce systemic risk that could lead to another financial crisis. “The objective is to ensure that shadow banking [...]
Lonmin gets go ahead for issue November 19, 2012 LONMIN shareholders voted through its $817m (£513m) rights issue yesterday, as they questioned the board on issues of governance. The rights issue, announced last month, is designed to cut debt and shore up the balance sheet following the six-week strike at South African mine Marikana over the summer. Lonmin had warned it would be left [...]
Brits want more housing but not high speed rail November 19, 2012 THE BRITISH public would like to see the government invest in or facilitate more house building to boost the flagging economy, according to a poll out yesterday. However, a survey suggests that there is less support for building new airports and runways or for beefing up the country’s rail infrastructure. Four in ten people believe [...]
Terra Firma to spend £3.2bn on real estate November 19, 2012 DEALMAKER Guy Hands’ buyout group Terra Firma has agreed to buy Annington Homes from Nomura in a deal worth £3.2bn. Hands, best known for the high profile loss of music group EMI to Citigroup after the private equity investor defaulted on its loans, was behind Nomura’s purchase of Annington in 1996 when he worked at [...]
Judge throws out AIG lawsuit November 19, 2012 A LAWSUIT by AIG’s former chief executive Hank Greenberg alleging the Federal Reserve Bank of New York broke the law during the 2008 government bailout of the failing insurance company was yesterday dismissed. Starr International, once a large shareholder in AIG, argued the US acted unconstitutionally when it took 80 per cent of AIG’s equity. [...]
