Next raises profit guidance September 14, 2011 Next raised its full-year profit guidance after posting an 8.5 per cent rise in half-year profit, driven by a strong performance from its Directory home shopping business. The firm, which runs over 500 stores in Britain and Ireland, said it made a pre-tax profit of £228m in the six months to 30 RETAILJuly. That compares [...]
Moody’s downgrades SocGen and Credit Agricole September 14, 2011 Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded two of France’s top banks, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole, in a new blow to efforts by European policymakers to restore market confidence in the region. The ratings agency said it was extending its review of BNP Paribas (BNPP) (BNPP.PA), but any downgrade was unlikely to be by more than [...]
Hong Kong: UK banks welcome September 13, 2011 BRITISH banks looking to move abroad would be welcome in Hong Kong, the country’s chief executive Donald Tsang said yesterday. Tsang said that he would “absolutely” be happy to see HSBC and Standard Chartered move their headquarters from the City. “If HSBC or Standard Chartered were to change headquarters it would not undermine their business [...]
Rebound in Paris banks September 13, 2011 FRENCH banks endured another tumultuous day of share price swings yesterday but closed up after quashing rumours of a funding problem. BNP Paribas rushed out a statement furiously denying a report that it no longer had access to dollar funding, after which its shares rocketed from 10 per cent down to close up 7.2 per [...]
GE to buy out Buffett September 13, 2011 US corporate giant General Electric is to repay the $3.3bn (£2.1bn) lifeline it received from billionaire Warren Buffett during the financial crisis by 17 October, a regulatory filing yesterday showed. GE will buy the entire preferred stake back from Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway investment vehicle in cash, including unpaid dividends, in a move that closes the [...]
IG gains from rough market September 13, 2011 EXTREME shocks to financial markets this summer boosted revenues at spread-betting business IG Group by more than a quarter to £99.8m, it said yesterday. IG said its clients leapt at the opportunity to trade derivatives between June and August as markets endured record levels of volatility. “These are ideal market conditions for our clients, who [...]
Eurozone must end this phoney war September 13, 2011 EUROPE is in a phoney war. The establishment is still in a denial about the inevitability of a Greek default; the markets don’t believe the politicians. The result is ever higher yields on Club Med debt, growing fears, extreme volatility in the pricing of banks’ securities, tensions in the money markets and a constant and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 13, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES MICROSOFT OPENS WINDOWS TO TOUCHSCREEN Microsoft has laid out a wide-ranging plan to overhaul its Windows software platform, marking an attempt to stem the erosion of its core PC software business amid the rise of touchscreen computing popularised by Apple. Along with the first full touchscreen version of Windows, the world’s biggest software [...]
Nomura is latest bank to cut jobs September 13, 2011 Investment bank Nomura is set to cut several hundred staff with the bulk of layoffs in Europe, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday. The cuts, which will include almost 300 in Europe and less than 400 globally, will account for about five per cent of staff in Nomura’s EMEA venture. The cuts could [...]
US budget deficit hits $134bn September 13, 2011 The US federal government’s budget deficit widened to $134bn (£84.6bn) in August, up from $90.5bn a year ago, figures showed yesterday. The jump in the gap between government spending and payments was in part due to calendar differences with 2010 that saw income accounted for in July instead of August this year. The deficit for [...]
