Disintegration May 30, 2012 INVESTORS panicked yesterday as the European Commission (EC) warned of “financial disintegration”, fleeing risky assets and pushing Spanish and Italian borrowing costs close to breaking point. The latest polls in Greece showed the anti-bailout party Syriza back in the lead – putting the country back on the path to leaving the Eurozone and sending stocks plummeting. [...]
Liquidators win in $600m fraud case against hedgie May 30, 2012 MAGNUS Peterson, the boss of collapsed hedge fund business Weavering, has been found guilty of defrauding investors and ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. London’s High Court ruled that Peterson, manager of the Weavering Macro Fixed Income fund, deceived clients and breached his duty of care to investors with a strategy [...]
Eurozone optimists are suffering from cognitive dissonance May 30, 2012 MY abiding memory of the credit crisis was the delusion that continued to grip the City and Wall Street long after it became apparent to objective observers that a terrible recession was about to begin. Most people kept their heads firmly in the sand when HSBC’s US sub-prime unit reported losses, for example, or when [...]
Doctors set first strike since 1975 May 30, 2012 DOCTORS will take industrial action for 24 hours next month in the first strike by the profession since 1975. While emergency care will still be available, doctors will not provide non-urgent care on 21 June. The majority of respondents to a British Medical Association ballot voted in favour of action over pension changes which will increase [...]
City lawyer is jailed for fraud May 30, 2012 A CITY lawyer was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday, after admitting four counts of expenses fraud against his former employer. Christopher Grierson, a former litigation partner at Hogan Lovells, claimed £1.27m in travel expenses from the firm over four years before the fraud – described as “sophisticated” – was uncovered in 2011. QEB [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 30, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Transparency on banks’ treasury units urged International banks must improve disclosure of often obscure treasury unit investments following the recent $2bn trading loss at JPMorgan’s chief investment office, rating agencies and bank analysts have urged. Malaysia fund nears £375m Battersea deal A Malaysian pension fund is poised to seal a £375m deal to [...]
Moulton turns his back on Tories May 30, 2012 Better Capital founder and prominent Conservative donor Jon Moulton has revealed he no longer supports the party. The venture capitalist said in an interview with Management Today that “after the Liam Fox affair and the recent GDP downgrade, it’s difficult working up much enthusiasm to be a political donor”. Moulton gave £35,000 to a charity [...]
£500m of credit easing launched May 30, 2012 The Treasury today announced another £500m of government funds will be made available for SMEs to borrow, in an effort to ease the pressure on businesses that are struggling to get past banks’ tough new lending criteria. The government is seeking bids from fund managers who will allocate £400m to medium-sized firms, which will receive [...]
Graff Diamonds pulls float due to market chaos May 30, 2012 GRAFF Diamonds last night decided to postpone its flotation after late-stage talks with potential US investors failed to fill the order book. As City A.M. reported yesterday, the advisers to the float had been struggling to attract sufficient orders for the $1bn share issue to go ahead, with banks reporting the order book just 50 per cent [...]
Buyout firm Bain Capital close to launch of $6bn fundraising May 30, 2012 US PRIVATE equity house Bain Capital is weeks away from kicking off a $6bn (£3.9bn) fundraising. The buyout firm, co-founded by Mitt Romney, is preparing to begin fundraising for its eleventh fund by the end of June, and will send out a private placement memorandum with the final terms. It will ask for money from pensions funds [...]
