City unveils new body to promote UK November 16, 2009 SOME of the City’s most senior figures are to join forces on a new unified body aimed at representing the interests of the UK financial services industry on a domestic and international stage. Stuart Popham, senior partner at law firm Clifford Chance, will chair the organisation, to be called TheCityUK. John Ingamells, a former political [...]
Gold soars to another high November 16, 2009 GOLD surged to a new record last night, with gold futures rising to $1,144.20 (£679.50) an ounce in after hours trading. It is just one week since the cost of the precious metal smashed through the $1,100-an-ounce barrier for the first time. The price of gold has now jumped by around 10 per cent in [...]
Intel boosts its dividend 12.5pc November 16, 2009 INTEL has raised its quarterly dividend by 12.5 per cent, citing strong growth prospects. The bullish outlook from the world’s biggest computer chip maker is another endorsement of the sustainability of the global economic recovery and the PC market. From the first quarter of 2010 Intel said it would pay a cash dividend of 15.75 [...]
City says FSA plan to tear up bank contracts is unlawful November 16, 2009 EX-ROYAL Bank of Scotland chairman Sir George Mathewson yesterday added to City concerns over government plans to hand the Financial Services Authority (FSA) the power to rip up bankers’ pay contracts, labelling them “dangerous”. Speaking on the BBC, Mathewson said it was “sad” to see a political move to threaten the banks even as the [...]
Bernanke: we will aim for a strong dollar November 16, 2009 BEN BERNANKE, chairman of the Federal Reserve, took the unusual step of commenting on the direction of the US dollar last night, saying he was “attentive” to the currency’s ongoing slide. The Fed chairman does not normally comment on the direction of the US dollar, so Bernanke’s comments were scrutinised across global markets. The US [...]
Wiseman sees profits leap November 16, 2009 Scottish dairy group Robert Wiseman Dairies has milked the most out of the collapse of Dairy Farmers Group, posting an 81.5 per cent rise in first half profit. A confident Robert Wiseman said 150m litres of milk supply had moved across to it as a direct result of dairy farmers leaving the market. That more [...]
Merlin lines up Sunderland November 16, 2009 The backers of theme park group Merlin Entertainments are lining up John Sunderland as chairman ahead of a stock market floatation next year. Merlin’s shareholders, which include Blackstone and Dubai International Capital, have identified the former chief executive and chairman of Cadbury-Schweppes to take the firm public. Merlin Entertainments, which owns Alton Towers, Legoland and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 16, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES MOBILE MAKERS ACT TO CURB FAKE PHONESThe global mobile phone industry is trying to rein in the rapid worldwide spread of illegitimate handsets by introducing a stricter regime for the allocation of handset identification numbers. The move comes as unlicensed Chinese handset manufacturers have started flooding the world market with exports in a [...]
Ray of hope for victims of bubblenomics November 16, 2009 THERE is much to be learnt from Japan’s disastrous performance since it suffered the mother of all bubbles in the late 1980s. Its woes were originally caused by excessive interest rate cuts in reaction to the dollar’s 51 per cent devaluation against the yen between 1985 and 1987, which hurt Japan’s export industries. Huge amounts [...]
GMAC chief quits top job November 16, 2009 THE boss of GMAC, the US lender that has so far taken $12.5bn (£7.4bn) in US taxpayer bailout money to survive the economic crisis, quit yesterday. Alvaro de Molina, chief executive since April 2008, will be replaced by Michael Carpenter, 62, a director of business lender CIT Group, a company that is currently reorganising in [...]
