Coke bottler mulls London listing plan September 18, 2012 COCA-COLA Hellenic, the Athens based soft drink bottling firm, is exploring plans to ditch its main Greek listing and reactivate its London stock listing, in a move which would shrink the Athens stock exchange volumes by a fifth. The firm last night said it was exploring “all options”, including a listing on the New York [...]
Atkins teams up with Aveva September 18, 2012 FRENCH nuclear reactor maker Areva and British engineering consultancy Atkins have set up a joint venture to bid for decommissioning contracts in Britain’s ageing nuclear sector, the companies said today. AREVA-ATKINS Partnership UK will seek to secure subcontractor work with companies appointed to manage sites owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the firms announced.
A few green shoots show their heads in the City September 18, 2012 WHISPER it quietly, but are there finally signs that, when it comes to initial public offerings, the City is limping back to life? Not everyone has been entirely welcoming of the growing trend of Russian firms looking to IPO over here, but the news of Sberbank’s $5bn offering was surely a welcome green shoot in [...]
Bankers discuss the disposal of shares in Alexander Forbes September 18, 2012 ALEXANDER Forbes, the financial services company that owns actuarial consultancy group Lane, Clark & Peacock, is considering listing up to 25 per cent of its shares on the Johannesburg stock exchange, according to City A.M. sources. The company is owned by a private equity-led group which consisted at the time of the 2007 $1bn buy-out [...]
Hammerson outmanoeuvres Westfield in Croydon battle September 18, 2012 REAL estate developer Hammerson yesterday stepped up its battle with rival Westfield over the ownership of Croydon town centre after snapping up a stake in the leasehold of the area’s main shopping centre. The FTSE 100 listed firm said it had acquired a 25 per cent stake in the leasehold of the Whitgift Centre, a [...]
StanChart calls on investors to focus on profits September 18, 2012 STANDARD Chartered yesterday tried to move markets on from last month’s sanction-breaking fine, instead calling on investors to focus on the bank’s underlying earnings. The bank’s share price plummeted by almost a quarter in August when a US regulator accused it of breaking the rules in $250bn (£153.8bn) of transactions with Iran – an accusation [...]
Treasury official regrets slow Northern Rock nationalisation September 18, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT would have lost less money on the nationalisation and subsequent sale of Northern Rock if it had acted sooner, a top Treasury official told MPs yesterday. “With the benefit of hindsight, the Treasury was slow off the mark in terms of addressing the problem,” permanent secretary Sir Nicholas Macpherson told the Public Accounts [...]
Bankers think Libor fixing was pervasive September 18, 2012 MOST bankers believe Libor manipulation was widespread in the industry, with weak regulation and short-term pay incentives being blamed for encouraging the bad practice, according to a survey published yesterday by research and consulting firm Lepus. Over half called Libor-rigging “pervasive” in banking, with risk management and back office staff most likely to see the [...]
JP Morgan warns QE3 could hit, not help, the US economy September 18, 2012 INTEREST rates could rise rather than fall as a result of the latest round of money printing announced by the Federal Reserve last week, analysts at JP Morgan warned yesterday. The potentially unlimited asset purchases under the latest quantitative easing programme (QE3) could increase inflation, pushing up yields and so hurt the economy rather than [...]
UBS expects Swiss deposit fall September 18, 2012 SWISS banks are set to see European clients withdraw “hundreds of billions of francs” as a result of steps to stop foreigners using secret accounts to evade taxes, a top banker at UBS warned yesterday. Juerg Zeltner, head of UBS wealth management estimates the country’s biggest bank alone could see outflows of SFr12bn (£8bn) to [...]
