Greece braces for more cuts September 18, 2011 GREECE was bracing itself yesterday as the government pledged to take tough action to avoid default following an emergency cabinet meeting. Prime Minister George Papandreou cancelled a visit to the US to hold the meeting, a day before EU and International Monetary Fund inspectors hold a conference call with finance minister Evangelos Venizelos to hear [...]
Poverty of debate is holding us back September 18, 2011 IT is obvious that companies need to work harder to make sure that all their employees deliver the goods. This must apply to everybody, including CEOs, who are hired by shareholders to maximise their value. They should be paid a lot if they do well and fired without massive payoffs if they fail. It should [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 18, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES FEARS OVER RETREAT ON VOLCKER BANK RULES The Volcker rule, which bans US banks from trading for their own account, is set to include exemptions that some officials fear will weaken its impact, people familiar with the situation have warned. In the wake of UBS’s $2.3bn (£1.4bn) loss last week, alleged to have [...]
United Tech eyeing Goodrich September 18, 2011 US diversified manufacturer United Technologies Corp is exploring a takeover of aerospace company Goodrich but the two sides are not yet close to a deal, according to a source. Reports last week said United Technologies was lining up $10bn to $20bn in financing for a US acquisition that could shape up as its biggest takeover [...]
Bank chief: Italy may default September 18, 2011 Italy cannot rule out the risk of default though it can weather the crisis if its economy returns to growth, the head of Italy’s largest retail bank Intesa Sanpaolo was quoted as saying yesterday. “We should know the risk of default is there,” Corrado Passera told Italian television channel La7, news agencies reported. “We shouldn’t [...]
Cable to look at worker say on bosses’ pay September 18, 2011 BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable will today kick off a government consultation on how to cut down on those executive pay packets that he says are undeserved. Speaking at the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham, Cable will suggest that there is a market breakdown when it comes to pay for execs. “I want to call time [...]
Lloyds loses finance director in latest change of the guard September 18, 2011 TIM Tookey is leaving Lloyds Banking Group, where he is finance director, to join the insurance group Friends Life, a part of Clive Cowdery’s Resolution Group. Tookey, who is believed to have been in talks with Friends Life for several weeks, will team up with Andrew Briggs, a former Lloyds colleague over five years, who [...]
Card games trigger Panel probe at M&B September 18, 2011 REPORTS that Joe Lewis enjoyed games of cards with JP McManus and John Magnier on board his yacht Aviva over the summer, as revealed in City A.M. on 15 September, have prompted the Takeover Panel to re-open their files on alleged collusion between the two parties to seize control of pubs chain Mitchells & Butlers. [...]
Q&A: CONCERT PARTIES EXPLAINED September 18, 2011 Q. WHAT IS A CONCERT PARTY? A. A concert party is a group of people acting together to take over a target company. For example, when two major shareholders, perhaps owning about 15 per cent of the business each, attempt to replace a management team they believe is incompetent. The 30 per cent threshold at [...]
Grübel clings on to his job September 18, 2011 UBS chief Oswald Grübel has denied that he feels “guilty” about the $2.3bn (£1.5bn) loss suffered by his bank over the actions of a “rogue” trader and insists that there is no reason he should quit over the matter. “If someone acts with criminal intent, you can’t do anything… That will always exist in our [...]
