Buckingham’s team will have to fight hard for a Nigerian win July 1, 2012 WHEN Arsenal last week announced it would play its first pre-season friendly against Nigeria’s national team in Abuja next month, the club won plaudits for bringing investment into the country. Tony Buckingham, the swashbuckling chief executive of Heritage Oil, must be hoping for a similarly warm reception from investors after his own entry to that [...]
Agius bows out after losing support July 1, 2012 CITY GRANDEE Marcus Agius, 65, who is poised to resign as group chairman of Barclays, was seen as a welcome but unexpected addition to the banking giant’s board when he first joined from the smaller Lazard in 2006. At that time, Agius was at the height of a lengthy 34-year career at the blue-blooded advisory [...]
RBS traders sacked following investigation into Libor fixing July 1, 2012 FOUR traders at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have been sacked following an internal investigation into accusations that the company rigged the Libor interest rate, it emerged yesterday. It is understood that the dismissals took place in October and November last year. A spokesman for the bank confirmed that four people have left the [...]
Scandal is devastating blow to every bank July 1, 2012 IN THE bad old days of 2007 and 2008, at 11am each day, we’d wait with mounting anticipation for the London Interbank Offer Rate (Libor). Queues formed outside branches of Northern Rock, HBOS, RBS and Lloyds teetered on the edge of unsustainability, and we (foolishly) looked to Libor to tell us quite how bad things [...]
Political pressure builds on Diamond July 1, 2012 BOB Diamond faces a battle to save his career after finding himself at the centre of a political storm ahead of his appearance at the Treasury select committee on Wednesday. “Parliament and the public need to know what went wrong and whether the perpetrators have been rooted out,” said Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie, who heads [...]
SFO backed out of rates probe July 1, 2012 INVESTIGATORS at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) considered launching an investigation into abuse of the Libor interest last September but decided against it due to a lack of funds, it was claimed yesterday. Former SFO director Richard Alderman took the decision, allegedly citing overstretched resources at the anti-fraud agency. This left the Financial Services Authority [...]
AstraZeneca’s £2bn pledge to tackle diabetes July 1, 2012 TROUBLED pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has joined forces with Bristol-Myers Squibb on its $5.3bn (£3.37bn) acquisition of diabetes drug developer Amylin, in the British-Swedish firm’s biggest deal in five years. Bristol-Myers Squibb announced on Saturday it will pay $31 per share for California-based Amylin – beating rival potential bidders Merck, Sanofi and Novartis to the prize [...]
Investcorp buys Austrian online firm Paysafecard for up to £113m July 1, 2012 INVESTCORP, a Bahrain-based investment firm, said yesterday its online portfolio unit Skrill has bought Austrian firm paysafecard.com for up to €140m (£113m), betting on growth in the online retail sector. Paysafecard provides prepaid electronic payment services and the acquisition is Investcorp’s fifth investment in Europe in the past six months, the Bahraini firm said in [...]
Aviva could axe 15 divisions as part of overhaul July 1, 2012 INSURANCE GIANT Aviva is expected to announce a radical overhaul of its business this week including proposals to sell-off or close up to a fifth of its operations. John McFarlane, the Aviva executive chairman who has also been acting as chief executive since Andrew Moss resigned, will present the findings of a month-long strategic review [...]
Lloyds-backed Cala Group builds recovery on higher house prices July 1, 2012 HOUSE builder Cala Group said today its sales and prices have both soared in the last year, despite tough conditions in the property market. Edinburgh-based Cala said sale completions rose 35 per cent to 875 in the year to the end of June, and the firm has already secured forward sales of 160 homes for [...]
