DEFEND YOUR PORTFOLIO IN TOUGH TIMES July 27, 2010 MANAGING DIRECTOR, ARTEMIS SO NOW we know. The economic environment is “unusually uncertain”, apparently. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has confirmed what everyone knew already. Reform – in particular the discharge of debt – has to take place in the midst of the western world’s inevitable and longstanding entanglements, obligations and historical [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS July 27, 2010 HEDGE FUND REVIEW IS LESS THAN ROSY The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index released its first half 2010 industry review yesterday and it was fairly sober reading. The good news was that, so far in 2010, hedge funds have outperformed many global stock indices. However, the returns were far from lacklustre at 0.6 [...]
Hallelujah: Peugeot’s latest car really, truly makes sense July 27, 2010 OK, I’m going to come clean. I distrust crossover cars, or crossover utility vehicles (CUVs). In the past when I’ve driven them I’ve tended not to like them. Neither one thing or another, they have always seemed to me to be the mongrels of the car world, compromised and with an identity crisis. Despite a [...]
CAR TALK July 27, 2010 SUZUKI’S SWIFT GETS BETTER This is the new, third generation Suzuki Swift which goes on sale in the UK in the autumn. Can you spot the differences with the outgoing model? No? Neither can we…but it’s lighter, stiffer, safer, cleaner and more economical. At 116g/km, it will be one of the cleanest petrol engine superminis [...]
CITY HEADS OUT FOR A GLORIOUS WEEK OF RACING AT GOODWOOD July 27, 2010 HORSERACING fanatics in the City have abandoned ship again this week to head over to Glorious Goodwood, running all week until Saturday. Around 100,000 attendees are expected to descend on Goodwood over the course of the festival, with the Tote estimating its potential winnings at £2.75m from 300,000 bets. Schmoozing at the first day of [...]
Former Northern Rock finance chief fined July 27, 2010 THE former finance director of Northern Rock, the bank which nearly collapsed during the credit crisis and had to be nationalised, has been slapped with a fine for mis-reporting mortgage arrears figures. Financial Services Authority (FSA) officials confirmed that David Jones had been ordered to pay £320,000. It also banned him from “performing any function [...]
ARM profit up 167 per cent in smartphone boost July 27, 2010 CHIP designer ARM Holdings posted a 167 per cent higher second-quarter profit, beating analysts’ expectations, helped by increasing demand for smartphones, netbooks and tablet computers. The company, whose designs are in more than 95 per cent of the world’s mobile phones, posted pretax profit of £43.5m on 54 per cent higher revenue of £100m – [...]
Tomkins agrees to £2.9bn bid July 27, 2010 A Canadian consortium has succeeded in its bid to buy car parts maker Tomkins for about £2.9bn, despite one of the company’s main shareholders calling for the bid to be rejected. Pinafore Acquisitions, a vehicle formed by Onex and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for the purpose of acquiring Tomkins, has offered to buy [...]
Deutsche Bank profit holds up July 27, 2010 DEUTSCHE Bank posted second-quarter pretax profit in line with expectations, helped by lower loan loss provisions amid weaker industry trends in investment banking. Deutsche’s corporate banking and securities division, which posted 779 million euros (£653.4m) in pretax profit, and global transaction banking with 478 million euros, accounted for the lion’s share of 1.52bn in group [...]
BP in record £11bn loss July 27, 2010 BP has said it has put aside £20.8bn to cover the costs linked to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. That means the company’s loss between April and June was £11bn – the largest in British corporate history. BP also confirmed that under-fire chief executive Tony Hayward would leave the company in October. [...]
