German delay on Greek deal rocks market April 26, 2010 GERMANY and the International Monetary Fund demanded clearer details on Greece’s planned budget cuts yesterday, spooking markets into pushing the country’s borrowing costs to the highest level in 12 years. German chancellor Angela Merkel said the €45bn (£38.8bn) support package offered by the European Union and the IMF would stand firm provided “tough measures” were [...]
Portugal suffers from jitters on the back of Greek uncertainty April 26, 2010 YIELDS on 10-year Portuguese bonds rose to 5.3 per cent yesterday, as investors fretted over what the Greek debt crisis might mean for some of Europe’s more peripheral economies. Now 10-year bond yields in Portugal have risen from 4.28 per cent a couple of weeks ago and yields on shorter term debt is rising too. [...]
Hargreaves to step down at broker April 26, 2010 PETER Hargreaves yesterday announced that he is stepping down as chief executive of Hargreaves Lansdown, the retail broking house he founded in 1981 along with his business partner Stephen Lansdown. The 63-year-old Hargreaves holds nearly a third of the group’s shares. His decision to quit was released after the close of the stock market yesterday, although [...]
Blankfein: I had worst day April 26, 2010 GOLDMAN Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein has said that the day the SEC civil fraud charges against his firm became public earlier this month was “one of the worst days in my professional life.” In written testimony released ahead of a Senate hearing a clearly affected Blankfein said: “We have to do a better job of [...]
Goldman faces fresh legal suit over its SEC disclosures April 26, 2010 GOLDMAN Sachs faces fresh legal action after shareholders filed a suit against the bank over its investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The class action, which was filed yesterday in the Southern District of New York Federal Court, accuses the bank of failing to notify shareholders that the SEC had issued Goldmans [...]
Carphone is boosted by Best Buy deal April 26, 2010 CARPHONE Warehouse raised its profit forecasts yesterday – fuelled by its joint venture with US electrical giant Best Buy. It said it expected net profit for the year to the end of March to be about £47m, above the £40-£45m it indicated in January. The company is preparing for the opening of its first joint [...]
Blackstone out of RBS race April 26, 2010 US private equity firm Blackstone and the Wellcome Trust have failed to make the shortlist of interested parties bidding for 318 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) branches. The joint offer submitted by the buyout house and the charitable foundation was “the least competitive” of five final bids, sources confirmed to City A.M. last night. It [...]
US Treasury begins to offload its stake in Citigroup as it seeks an end to Tarp April 26, 2010 The Treasury started selling off its 27 per cent stake in Citigroup yesterday, the latest step in the Obama administration’s effort to end unpopular bailout programmes. The US government acquired the stake after it gave Citi $45bn (£30bn) in bailout money in 2008 and 2009. Citi has paid back $20bn in preferred shares, but another [...]
BlackRock shares slide after its anaemic results April 26, 2010 BlackRock, the giant money management firm, reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings as its funds businesses saw outflows and customers shifted to passive funds over more actively-managed ones. The asset management firm’s shares were down as much as 8.8 per cent as investors focused on the weaker-than-expected earnings as well as weaker-than-forecast revenue numbers even as overall [...]
Sport newspaper loses £29m after a torrid year April 26, 2010 THE publisher of the Daily and Sunday Sport newspapers was forced to rely on an emergency loan as its losses mounted up to almost £29m in the 18 months to the end of last year. The paper’s former owner David Sullivan bailed it out with a £1.6m loan through his Roldvale vehicle. The financial tsunami [...]
