Draghi urges Germany to back ECB rescue plan September 25, 2012 EUROPEAN Central Bank chief Mario Draghi urged Germany to support its plan to buy up more bonds of troubled Eurozone governments, at a speech in Berlin yesterday. Draghi said that he respected German reservations over further interventions from the ECB, yet insisted that it is in the country’s interest to get behind measures intended to [...]
Greece to be classed as emerging market September 25, 2012 THE FTSE yesterday said it was considering downgrading Greece to emerging market status, while separate reports said that the IMF could turn off its aid tap until the country restructures its debt mountain. Index provider FTSE has not yet reclassified Greece, but moved the beleaguered Eurozone member to its watch list to consider demoting it [...]
Boost to consumer morale in Germany and Italy but French industry struggling September 25, 2012 GERMAN consumers will maintain their good spirits into October, just as Italian consumer sentiment also seemed to be improving, two sets of data showed yesterday. Consumer confidence was at an index score of 5.9 in Germany, according to a forward looking measure from researchers GfK, the same positive result as last month. GfK said this [...]
Swiss National Bank hits back at ratings agency bond claims September 25, 2012 THE SWISS central bank yesterday denied claims from ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) that it distorted bond markets for “core” Eurozone members. S&P had said that the Swiss National Bank (SNB) bought €80bn worth of bonds from stable “core” Eurozone nations between January and July 2012, effectively funding around half of the deficits in [...]
Doubts raised over Eurozone banking union September 25, 2012 GERMANY, the Netherlands and Finland issued a joint declaration yesterday that appeared to unravel much of what was agreed at the last European summit in June, when EU leaders paved the way for the direct recapitalisation of problem banks. In a statement issued after a meeting of their finance ministers in Helsinki, the three AAA-rated [...]
Gordon Brown pushes button on Wall St slide September 25, 2012 GORDON Brown was fond of claiming that the financial crisis “started in America”, placing the blame for the banking collapse solely on the excesses of Wall Street. So it was something of a surprise to see him welcomed to the New York Stock Exchange yesterday morning where he joined a list of luminaries – including tennis [...]
City Views | Should Andrew Mitchell resign over comments made to the police? September 25, 2012 GREG MYERS ELLIOT ROSS Definitely not! We all make mistakes; his is just an extremely public one. However I do think something else is needed other than his apology to rectify the situation. MATTHEW GLASS CME GROUP He knows he did wrong and has apologised. After this I do respect him less but with such [...]
Funders reach into their pockets for tower September 25, 2012 FLAT-HUNTERS looking for a pad near the South Bank without the Shard’s eyewatering prices, rejoice: a project to turn King’s Reach Tower into luxury high-rise housing has secured funding. CIT and Jadwa have raised £250m in Shariah-compliant construction financing, and hope to turn the vacant skyscraper into flats and office space by the end of [...]
Record profits for Hargreaves amid mine woe September 25, 2012 FUEL logistics group Hargreaves Services yesterday posted record profits, as it said it would consider mothballing its troubled Maltby mine in Yorkshire. Revenue over the year to 31 May rose 24.6 per cent to £688.3m, while pre-tax profit jumped 16.8 per cent to £43.1m. Hargreaves earlier this year issued a profit warning triggered by geological [...]
Aerospace firms defend deal as EADS chief meets German MPs September 25, 2012 BAE and EADS yesterday played down speculation that the merger ratio will be sweetened to make the deal more attractive to EADS shareholders, as the aerospace giant’s chief executive Tom Enders prepared to appear before German politicians today to address concerns surrounding the deal. The rumours centred around the merger ratio, which could value EADS’s [...]
