Novartis launches copy-cat case August 16, 2009 Novartis, the Swiss drugs giant, has launched legal action against its larger rival GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), claiming it is infringing one of its patents covering a technique used in the production of a number of its own vaccines. Last year, GSK lawyers attempted to get the Novartis patent revoked, claiming it should never have been granted, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 16, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphBAE WARNS OF CREDIT THREAT TO SUPPLIERSBAE systems has warned that its supply chain is at risk from suppliers failing to obtain adequate credit. The defence giant is supplied by tens of thousands of smaller manufacturers that are far more vulnerable to the funding squeeze than the company itself. BAE has a [...]
Latest big bank to shut down hits US August 16, 2009 US BANK Colonial BancGroup, which has assets of $25bn (£15.1bn), became the largest American bank to fail so far this year when it was shut down by federal officials on Friday. On the same day, regulators also shut down two institutions in Arizona – one in Las Vegas and one in Pittsburgh – pushing the total [...]
The $100m trader in the sights of pay tsar August 16, 2009 British-born Citigroup trader Andrew Hall is fighting to hold on to a $100m (£61m) payout as the US government’s “pay tsar” prepares to cut Wall Street bonuses. The Obama administration’s head of financial services compensation, Kenneth Feinberg, will this week begin to study the pay of the top 25 earners in US banks. One White [...]
DARLING THREATENS LAW TO CURB CITY BONUSES August 16, 2009 CITY bankers are on a collision course with politicians over multi-million pound bonuses after chancellor Alistair Darling yesterday pledged to intervene to curb excessive pay and risk-taking in the Square Mile. The Treasury is ready to consider legal action on bonuses if they pose a “systemic risk” to the banking system, which Darling and many [...]
RIG expects to narrow losses August 13, 2009 Aim-listed insurance claims facility provider Resources in Insurance Group, said yesterday that it expects its interim results, which will be announced in mid-September, to show a significant improvement in trading and to show losses reduced by around 50 per cent.
Pawnbroker names new CEO August 13, 2009 British pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond yesterday named Barry Stevenson as chief executive, from 14 September, succeeding Greville Nicholls, who will become chairman. Nicholls replaces chairman Charles Nicolson, who stepped down following a period of ill health. Stevenson was most recently the CEO of garden supply store operator Wyevale Garden Centres. Shares of the company closed [...]
Commentator spots a bargain August 13, 2009 Paul Krugman, the Nobel-Prize winning economist and leading commentator on the financial crisis, yesterday paid $1.7m (£1m) for an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, arising suspicions that he believes the US property market has now reached the bottom. The economist agreed the purchase yesterday of the apartment which had an original asking price of [...]
Activity returns to property August 13, 2009 Activity in the European property investment market inched up to ¤13bn (£11.2bn) in the second quarter, from ¤11.6bn in the first quarter of 2009, according to CBRE. The group said that while it is too early to predict a sustained upturn, there is some expectation that the fourth quarter could see a modest further improvement [...]
Buffet’s Berkshire admits slip-ups on derivative risks August 13, 2009 BILLIONAIRE US investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway underestimated the risks of falling stock prices to its billions of dollars of derivatives bets, yet still believes it is valuing the contracts fairly. Berkshire revealed its error in a 26 June letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, one of several pieces of correspondence with the [...]
