Founder of K1 under arrest October 29, 2009 GERMAN authorities placed Helmut Kiener, founder of Germany’s K1 hedge fund group, under arrest yesterday in a multi-million-dollar corruption probe of a Caribbean- registered fund he ran. His arrest warrant said Barclays and BNP Paribas may have lost millions of dollars in the case, which prosecutors say spanned the Atlantic and featured lavish personal spending [...]
Plus a change, plus c’est la mme chose October 29, 2009 IT is becoming increasingly clear that the current crisis is much more similar to previous booms and busts than is usually understood. London’s secondary banking crisis of the 1970s, for example, saw a number of financial institutions that raised funds on the money markets go bust after the Bank of England hiked interest rates and [...]
Peter Norris to chair Virgin October 29, 2009 SIR Richard Branson has appointed Peter Norris, the former Barings boss, as chairman of the Virgin Group, the holding company that owns Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Rail. Norris, 54, as Virgin’s first non-executive chairman, will oversee the management of the group. He will step down as chief executive of Scottish investment bank boutique Quayle Munro. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 29, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES ASIAN SHIPPING LINES SUFFER FURTHER LOSSESTwo of Asia’s biggest shipping lines announced major losses for the June-September quarter in a further sign of the unprecedented severity of the crisis battering the industry. Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines said that it would lose money at least for the first half of 2010 as it announced [...]
Fed should lose bailout powers October 29, 2009 The Federal Reserve should lose its authority to bail out financial firms under proposed reforms aimed at limiting the damage from failures, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said. “Any firm that puts itself in a position where it cannot survive without assistance from the government must face the consequences of failure,” Geithner said. The Fed [...]
P&G posts strong third quarter October 29, 2009 Consumer goods firms Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Colgate-Palmolive posted better-than-expected results yesterday, fuelling hopes of a global economic recovery. P&G, the world’s largest maker of household goods, said its first quarter profits fell by 1 per cent from a year ago to $3.35bn (£2.02bn). Colgate-Palmolive, the toothpaste-to-soap maker, reported an 18 per cent rise [...]
Bankers think bonuses will break records October 29, 2009 DESPITE protests from politicians and taxpayers against multi-million pound payouts, bankers expect this year’s bonus payments to break records, according to a new poll. One in ten executives expect their best ever payout this year while the majority of traders, analysts and fund managers believe their bonus will either increase or not change. And despite [...]
Threshers owner hires KPMGas administrators October 29, 2009 FIRST Quench Retailing, the owner of off-licence chains Thresher and Wine Rack, yesterday said that it has appointed KPMG as administrator. The Board said it had not been able to inform colleagues and employees of impending job uncertainty before the news surfaced. KPMG said that the “best prospect for the business is a sale as [...]
Lovells and USrival to push on with merger October 29, 2009 LONDON law firm Lovells and US rival Hogan & Hartson yesterday said they had received unanimous support from management of both firms to combine their partnerships. Management at Hogan & Hartson and Lovells will now make recommendations to their respective partnerships to go forward with the proposed merger of equals. A merger between the two [...]
Exxon Mobil profits dive on oil slump October 29, 2009 OIL SUPERMAJOR Exxon Mobil slashed its spending outlook for the year yesterday as it reported a 68 per cent slump in third-quarter earnings on the back of a poor trading environment. The world’s biggest oil company said its profits fell to $4.73bn (£2.9bn), down from $14.83bn a year ago, as oil prices fell and its [...]
