Bluefin boss attacks Tory threat to FSA August 4, 2009 THE HEAD of one of the UK’s largest insurance brokers has hit out at shadow chancellor George Osborne’s plans to scrap the tripartite system of regulation, accusing him of “pandering to public sentiment”. Howard Fryer, managing director of Axa-owned broking giant Bluefin, has said the insurance sector would face costly turmoil if Osborne goes ahead [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 4, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES BMW EYES TIE-UP WITH PEUGEOT FOR MINIBMW is examining whether to share platforms with PSA Peugeot Citroën for its Mini small car, it emerged yesterday, as the German premium carmaker returned to profit in the second quarter on the back of cost-cutting. Norbert Reithofer, BMW’s chief executive, said the company was talking to [...]
GE fined $50m by SEC August 4, 2009 GENERAL Electric has been fined $50m (£29.5m) after being accused of manipulating its earnings to meet analysts’ expectations. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged that the firm deceived investors, adding that “overly aggressive accounting can distort a company’s true financial condition.” GE did not admit or deny the allegations, but agreed to [...]
ANZ buys RBS Asian assets in a $550m deal August 4, 2009 AUSTRALIA and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has agreed a $550m (£324.6m) deal to buy Asian assets from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). The deal is its biggest overseas purchase, helping it to take on rivals HSBC and Standard Chartered in Asia’s fast-growing markets. ANZ has been in talks for weeks to buy retail [...]
Not all banks were given state handouts August 4, 2009 ANOTHER day; another row about banking profits, bonuses and the future of the City. The nationalised Northern Rock’s numbers were poor as expected – but for some reason, the pundits are more concerned with banks that are doing reasonably well. And not any institution: they couldn’t care less about Standard Chartered, a well-managed group which [...]
Rock suffers on bad debts August 4, 2009 NATIONALISED mortgage lender Northern Rock posted a £724.2m first-half loss yesterday, as the number of bad debts trebled. The bank, taken into public ownership in February last year, wrote down £602.2m in bad loans, up 214 per cent on the £191.6m in writedowns it took in the first half of 2008. The outlook for the [...]
IS STANDARD CHARTERED REALLY AS ROBUST AS IT APPEARS? August 4, 2009 SANDY CHEN PANMURE GORDON“We would have been happier if these results and the dividend hike had not been accompanied by the share placement; the combination begs questions about what management is trying to signal. We interpret this as a sign of management’s confidence, in both macro prospects and the emerging markets business model.” NIC CLARKE [...]
Standard Chartered aided by Asian rally August 4, 2009 STANDARD Chartered yesterday raised $1.7bn (£1.02bn) in a share sale after reporting a 10 per cent jump in pre-tax profits for the first six months of the year. Pre-tax operating profit reached $2.84bn, beating the $2.59bn booked in the first half of 2008 and well ahead of an analysts’ consensus forecast provided by the bank [...]
Fresh losses at UBS dent hopes of a quick recovery August 4, 2009 TROUBLED Swiss lender UBS saw its second quarter losses widen by a factor of three yesterday, as its bottom line was dented by charges on its own debt, a loss on the sale of its Brazilian unit and job cuts. The bank fell to a quarterly net loss of Sfr1.4bn (£780m), down from a Sfr395m [...]
Profit boost from Fortis puts BNP chief in buoyant mood August 4, 2009 BNP PARIBAS posted higher second-quarter profit yesterday thanks in part to its purchase of Fortis assets, and expressed some optimism over prospects for financial markets. Net profit rose 6.6 per cent from a year earlier to €1.6bn (£1.36bn), while gross operating profit rose 44.7 per cent to €4.06bn, beating an average analysts’ forecast of €3.67bn. [...]
