King warns of slow recovery and says growth won’t return to pre-crisis levels March 22, 2010 BANK of England governor Mervyn King yesterday poured cold water on hopes of a sunny economic recovery, warning that the environment will feel “far from normal” for some time. In a speech about the difficulties of communicating economic forecasts, King reiterated that economic activity would remain well below pre-credit crunch levels, despite the strong bounce [...]
Feinberg to review pay at US bailed out companies March 22, 2010 OBAMA pay tsar Kenneth Feinberg is planning to review past compensation at 419 firms that received bailout funds, including JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, according to a source close to the US Treasury Department. Feinberg will “look back” at any pay for the top 25 earners that totaled more than $500,000 (£331,218) from October 2008, [...]
Kentz posts 9pc jump in earnings March 22, 2010 IRISH engineering group Kentz posted a nine per cent rise in full-year pre-tax profit, boosted by a higher backlog of orders and increased revenue from its construction segment, and said it was comfortable with market expectations for 2010. The company, which raised its total dividend by five per cent to six cents a share, said [...]
General Dynamics wins armoured vehicles deal March 22, 2010 THE UK government has awarded US firm General Dynamics the contract to build new armoured vehicles for Britain’s army, a significant blow to UK bidder BAE Systems which had hoped to win the deal. The contract is the first phase of the £4bn contract to build armoured reconnaissance vehicles to replace Britain’s ageing Scimitar scout [...]
Ocado sales jump 25pc in IPO warm-up March 22, 2010 OCADO, the online food retailer, has started a “beauty parade” of advisers for a stockmarket flotation after releasing a strong set of results which saw sales surge 25 per cent in a year. Investment banks queuing up to help guide Ocado through a summer initial public offering (IPO) include UBS, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Nomura [...]
Citi’s Freiberg named E-Trade chief executive amid new takeover talk March 22, 2010 FORMER Citigroup executive Steven Freiberg has been named as E-Trade’s new chief executive. Freiberg, will takeover from interim chief executive Robert Druskin on 1 April, ending the search for a successor to Donald Layton. It is understood Freiberg will earn a base salary of $1m ( £662,000) and is eligible for a $3m cash performance [...]
Glaxo begins vaccine inquiry March 22, 2010 The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has asked British drugs manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline to look urgently into how the DNA of a foreign viral strain got into the company’s Rotarix vaccine. GSK’s Biologicals division reported the contamination to the medicines regulator after it found DNA from porcine circovirus type 1 in batches of the oral vaccine, used [...]
Head of equities at UBS leaves bank after 24 years March 22, 2010 UBS global head of equities Daniel Coleman will leave Switzerland’s biggest bank after almost 24 years. His duties will be taken up by the bank’s current head global securities Neal Shear. Coleman will step down immediately but will continue to work at the bank as a senior adviser for some months. According to an internal [...]
EU presses Germany to agree Greek aid package March 22, 2010 THE head of the European Commission challenged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to rise above domestic politics and agree on a financial safety net for debt-stricken Greece to help preserve European monetary union. Greece’s deputy prime minister meanwhile accused Berlin of allowing its banks to take part in a “deplorable game” of speculating on Greek bonds [...]
Barclays hit by charge on restructuring March 22, 2010 BARCLAYS yesterday updated the market on the broad-ranging reorganisation of its group structure, admitting it will take a £100m charge in the first half of 2010 as a result of the restructuring of Barclays Corporate. The £100m charge reflects redundancy and other costs from Barclays’ exit from its Bank Akita retail arm in Indonesia, a [...]
