French firm may make formal £3.3bn offer for Invensys tomorrow July 30, 2013 French firm Schneider is said to be close to a $5bn (£3.3bn) deal to purchase engineering firm Invensys, according to Reuters. The package offered is unlikely to change from the initial announcement, as no rival bid has emerged. This offer comes a little earlier than expected, with a deadline of 8 August. Shares in Invensys [...]
US home price index sees Dallas and Denver hit all-time highs July 30, 2013 One US home price index has shown house prices have risen 12.2 per cent versus a year ago (release). While slightly below estimates of a 12.4 per cent rise, that's still a huge increase. The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index has yet again seen prices rise in every city in May. All 20 cities showed positive [...]
One of America’s biggest hospital operators buys rival to take advantage of Obamacare July 30, 2013 The second largest for profit US hospital operator – Community Health Systems – has announced the purchase of its small rival Health Management Associates (release). CHS will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common stock of HMA for a combination of cash and CHS stock currently valued at $13.78 per HMA share, based on [...]
How awful would the market for cars be if we treated them like houses? July 30, 2013 The market for housing in the UK is perverse. By comparing it with the market for cars, Duncan Stott, affordable housing campaigner for PricedOut, shows just how mad our system is: Imagine if every car that got made had to get planning permission to be manufactured, with the aim of protecting the environment and avoiding [...]
Watch: The UK doesn’t need an online sales tax July 30, 2013 Spiralling UK business rates are crippling high street shops. But City A.M. editor Allister Heath explains why an online sales tax is not the answer. We need lower rates, not yet another tax that would cost consumers and hit the poor hardest.
Huge jump in UK confidence boosts European Union numbers July 30, 2013 European Union confidence is up – and we have the non-Euro area UK to thank. While the EU rise in confidence was in-line with expectations, the UK saw a terrific jump in July. On a country basis, the main reason for the sharper plus was markedly improving confidence in the largest non-euro area EU economy, [...]
Barclays shares drop as profits fall and announces plans to fill capital hole July 30, 2013 Barclays has reported a 17 per cent fall in half year adjusted profits to £3.591bn as it was hit by the cost of a group-wide restructure in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal. The bank also reported that its capital hole was much larger than thought at £12.8bn and announced a £5.8bn capital-raising rights [...]
Domino’s results go cold as profits slump July 30, 2013 Takeaway chain Domino's has seen system sales increase by 13.8 per cent to £326.5m in 26 weeks ended 30 June (release). However pre-tax profits (after exceptional items) have sunk from £21.5m to £11.6m. Profit before tax, excluding Germany and Switzerland, increased 10.3 per cent to £25.7m with sales up 6.4 per cent in the UK. [...]
Bank of Italy to inspect finances of top lenders as bad loans could exceed £216bn July 29, 2013 The Bank of Italy is said to be inspecting the finances of some of the country's top lenders, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal. As expected, the Bank of Italy is investigating about NPLs ratio in Italian banks’ balance sheets. — Fabrizio Goria (@FGoria) July 29, 2013 According to Linkiesta, non-performing loans could [...]
ECB set to publish rules for Emergency Liquidity Assistance July 29, 2013 The European Central Bank is going to publish details of rules for Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), according to German newspaper Faz. Some rough translation from the Faz piece below: According to information from the FAZ, the Governing Council has decided that the rules for the controversial emergency loans (Emergency Liquidity Assistance ELA) to publish. This [...]
