House prices to decline sharply despite recent rally, warns Fitch October 7, 2009 RECENT rises in UK house prices are likely to be reversed next year, ratings agency Fitch said yesterday. The firm said it expected a rapid decline in house prices to a trough of 30 per cent below the peak of October 2007, despite the 1.6 per cent rise recorded by home lender Halifax in September. [...]
SARIN JOINS KKR October 7, 2009 HIGH-PROFILE private equity house Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) has appointed former Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin as a senior adviser. Sarin is expected to help KKR with deals in the telecoms industry, as private equity firms return to deal-making following the recovery of equity markets and the return of bank credit. Sarin ran Vodafone for [...]
J Sainsbury sales growth slows down October 7, 2009 J SAINSBURY, hot on the heels of supermarket archrival Tesco, yesterday revealed that its second quarter sales growth had slowed as food inflation eased in the autumn. Sainsbury’s said like-for-like sales growth, excluding fuel, slowed to 4.6 per cent rise for the 16 weeks to 3 October down from seven per cent in the previous [...]
WestLB to put 87bn in bad bank October 7, 2009 GERMANY’S WestLB will offload at least €87bn (£80bn) in risky assets into the country’s first “bad bank”, a move other lenders may follow. The regional state-backed lender said it planned to start by next month off-loading some of the billions of euros in loss-making investments it racked up in the credit crisis. While WestLB is [...]
FSA censures traders after their appeal October 7, 2009 THE FINANCIAL Services Authority yesterday censured two bond traders who had appealed against market abuse allegations, stopping short of issuing a hefty fine or a lifelong ban. The news prompted speculation that more people would now choose to appeal to the FSA Regulatory Decision Committee (RDC), as the watchdog forges ahead with its aggressive enforcement [...]
WILL THIS CASE ENCOURAGE MORE APPEALS AGAINST THE FSA? October 7, 2009 SIMON MORRIS CMS CAMERON MCKENNA“This case shows that in nine times out of ten the FSA can spot market abuse from a distance of a hundred yards – here we have the one-in-ten case. Firms and individuals should always scrutinise the FSA’s market abuse allegations, calling in market evidence to rein in its wilder claims.”HARRIET [...]
Julius Baer spends 317m on ING assets October 7, 2009 JULIUS Baer will buy ING’s Swiss private banking assets for SFr520m (£317m), in the European wealth management industry’s biggest deal since the crisis began. Baer is paying about 2.3 per cent of assets under management (AUM) for the business excluding surplus capital, and about three percent including the surplus, roughly in line with expected valuations. [...]
Santander’s Brazilian listing gets off to a lacklustre start October 7, 2009 BRAZIL’S biggest ever initial public offering (IPO) kicked off with a whimper instead of a bang as shares of the Brazilian unit of Spanish bank Santander edged lower during their trading debut. Executives of Santander Brasil sought to focus on the fact that it raised 14.1 billion reais (£5.06bn) with its IPO in Sao Paulo [...]
Barclays chews over substantial wealth management acquisition October 7, 2009 BARCLAYS is mulling over the acquisition of a substantial wealth management business to boost its global private banking presence, the firm revealed yesterday. Gerard Aquilina, the vice-chairman of the group’s private banking arm Barclays Wealth, said the bank would be prepared to stump up for a business at least the size of 120-year-old Swiss firm [...]
Tories pledge tax hikes on strong drinks October 7, 2009 THE Conservatives would raise taxes on super-strength beer and cider by up to £1.50 in an effort to crack down on binge drinking, shadow home secretary Chris Grayling told the Tory party conference in Manchester yesterday. Among a raft of measures designed to place tighter restrictions on the drinks industry, Grayling said retailers would be [...]
