Public rail is the future: poll by RMT September 13, 2009 RAIL union RMT will today release a poll showing 70 per cent of the public support the renationalisation of the railways, weeks before National Express’ East Coast Main Line franchise is set to be brought back under public control. Only 23 per cent of the 1017 people questioned support continued privatisation in the industry, the [...]
France Telecom under pressure September 13, 2009 French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde yesterday called for bosses at France Telecom to meet urgently to tackle a wave of suicides at the former state monopoly. A spokesman for the Labour Ministry over the weekend said Labour Minister Xavier Darcos will meet chief executive Didier Lombard early this week to see what can be done [...]
Boyer Allan co-head nets 23m September 13, 2009 Nicholas Allan, co-founder of hedge fund firm Boyer Allan, has raked in a small fortune during the financial crisis, it has emerged. Allan was paid £23m in 2008, as the credit crunch took hold, after making well-considered investment decisions that delivered profits to his investors. Allan, who owns a second home in Devon, is not [...]
Taiwanese Ponzi fraudster dies September 13, 2009 Financier Danny Pang, who was accused by US securities regulators of perpetrating a massive Bernard Madoff-style “Ponzi” scheme on mainly Taiwanese investors, has died, a family spokesman said on Saturday. Pang, 42, was taken to a California hospital near his home on Friday and later died, spokesman Charles Sipkins said. The cause of death was [...]
Thomson Reuters buys Abacus September 13, 2009 Thomson Reuters has said it is to buy tax-software firm Abacus Enterprise from Deloitte, in a deal expected to be worth around $45m (£27m). The group has snapped up the London firm, which supplies tax products to half the firms in the FTSE 100, as part of ongoing expansion of its professional services activities. Thomson [...]
Yell investors put pressure on its lenders September 13, 2009 AILING directories publisher Yell is sounding out its shareholders for a rights issue of up to £500m, it emerged yesterday, as the company seeks to refinance its £3.8bn debt mountain. But investors will only support an equity raising if banks agree to relax the terms of a debt repayment programme, it is understood. In June, [...]
Financial institutions need fair global regulation September 13, 2009 A YEAR on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers I am taking the City’s hefty “policy” briefcase to New York for talks with Mayor Bloomberg and representatives of the financial community about how we move ahead. I will also be spending a day in Boston where much of the US’s asset management industry is based. [...]
BlackRock wants own trading platform September 13, 2009 BLACKROCK plans to create its own global trading platform which could help save its clients significant amounts of money in trading fees. The asset manager, set to become the world’s largest money manager with roughly $3 trillion (£1.79 trillion) in assets when it buys Barclays Global Investors (BGI) later this year, is in the early [...]
Private equity-owned businesses have out-performed rivals, says new report September 13, 2009 THE PRIVATE equity industry achieved healthy levels of profit growth in the bigger companies it sold off last year, according to a study by Ernst & Young. The industry, which often finds itself fighting a reputation for “asset stripping” companies and making staff redundant to slash costs, actually boosted profits at large firms that were [...]
Asia’s largest airline is US rivals’ target September 13, 2009 DELTA Air Lines and American Airlines, the world’s two largest carriers, are said to be considering making rival bids for a stake in Japan Airlines (JAL). Asia’s largest airline by revenue recently posted quarterly losses of 99bn yen (£654m), and is 721bn yen in debt. Despite cutting jobs and unprofitable routes, JAL is still in [...]
