Egan-Jones downgrades France June 14, 2012 Ratings agency Egan-Jones cut France’s sovereign credit rating to BBB-plus with a negative outlook last night, citing expectations that the country’s funding costs will see more pressure as the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis continues to roil markets. “The deterioration in France’s credit metrics combined with the needed [support] for France’s banks are likely to pressure [...]
Protests as Monti meets Hollande June 14, 2012 Italians protesting against the government’s austerity policies clashed with police outside the lower house of parliament yesterday as Prime Minister Mario Monti met French President Francois Hollande next door. The main crowd – a few hundred-strong – waved labour union flags and kicked footballs at the riot police.
IIF urges monetary loosening June 14, 2012 Major central banks should ease monetary policy in coordination to give a powerful boost to market confidence and help restore stuttering global growth, a leading group of international bankers said yesterday. The Institute of International Finance called on the G20 to deliver this medicine as part of a plan to revitalise economic growth and job [...]
Audit quality threatened by fee pressure June 14, 2012 PRESSURE to reduce fees poses a threat to the quality of British auditing, a leading member of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said yesterday, as the body issued its annual reports on the performance of the country’s four largest accountancy firms. Paul George, the organisation’s executive director of conduct, told City A.M.: “Commercial pressures run the [...]
Investors call foul to Sky and BT’s footy deal June 14, 2012 UNIMPRESSED investors yesterday drove down the price of shares in BSkyB and BT after the companies announced they had agreed to pay a collective £3.018bn for the right to broadcast the Premier League’s games. At an average £6.53m per match, the deal will plough an extra 70 per cent into the Premier League’s pockets. Shares in [...]
Cameron denies a pact with News International and Tories June 14, 2012 DAVID Cameron yesterday said it was “nonsense” that News International and the Conservative Party “got together” in a deal to exchange press support for policy influence. “I don’t believe in this theory there was a nod and a wink and some sort of agreement”, he added. Cameron was also quizzed over his decision to hire former [...]
Microsoft said to fancy $1bn social network June 14, 2012 ENTERPRISE social network Yammer could be snapped up by tech giant Microsoft in a $1bn deal announced as soon as today, according to reports. Set up by former PayPal chief operating officer David Sacks in 2008, Yammer is used for private communication within organisations, unlike public microblogging tool Twitter or friends-based social network Facebook. Microsoft’s step [...]
Mulberry bags profit but sees shares slump June 14, 2012 MULBERRY lost almost a quarter of its market value yesterday after the British luxury handbag maker reported a marked slowdown in recent trading growth, despite full-year profits increasing almost two-fold. While pre-tax profit rose 54 per cent to £36m in the year to March, broadly in line with forecasts, the firm’s recent trading performance fell [...]
Investors send luxury firm to naughty step June 14, 2012 YESTERDAY’S reaction to Mulberry’s slowing growth has a hint of the schoolroom about it. An overachiever for the past couple of years, shareholders greeted the luxury brand’s slip with horror – like a teacher who expresses abject disappointment when their favourite A* student drops a grade. In markets as volatile as we’ve seen recently, though, [...]
More woe at Nokia as stock falls on plan to cut one in five jobs June 14, 2012 LOSS-MAKING Finnish mobile phone producer Nokia plans to cut another 10,000 jobs globally in its biggest revamp in recent history, it announced yesterday, while warning that the second-quarter loss from its mobile phone business would be larger than expected. The cuts, which include the closure of Nokia’s only plant in Finland, bring total planned job [...]
