CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 8, 2012 Utilyx The energy management specialist has appointed Jo Butlin as its managing director. She has an extensive career in the energy sector, including senior roles at Powergen, and she most recently worked as vice president, operations at SmartestEnergy. Bahrain Mumtalakat The investment arm of the Kingdom of Bahrain has appointed Tony Robinson as its new [...]
FTSE maintains its four-month high despite hit from ex-dividend stocks August 8, 2012 BRITAIN’S blue chip share index rose by just a few points yesterday, consolidating around a four-month peak as a slide in a batch of stocks trading without their dividend entitlements offset gains in banking and mining stocks. Fifteen blue chip stocks traded ex-dividend yesterday including heavyweights Royal Dutch Shell, BP, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, and Barclays knocking [...]
Most countries are responsible for the crisis – not just the UK August 7, 2012 REMEMBER sub-prime lending? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s absurd backing of mortgages for those who couldn’t afford to pay the money back? The US government’s decision to promote sub-prime lending? The Federal Reserve’s crazy decision to inflate endless bubbles via excessively loose monetary policy during the good times, and its destructive commitment to step in [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 7, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Tea market strained as output falls The price of tea has jumped to a 2½-year high as poor crops in some of the world’s most important producers strain supplies. Dry conditions, poor rains and frosts have hit tea production in Kenya, the largest exporter of black tea. A bad monsoon has reduced production [...]
Hotel group to return $1bn to shareholders August 7, 2012 INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels, the world’s biggest hotelier, yesterday promised to return $1bn (£640bn) to investors after profits jumped by six per cent in the first half of the year. Shares rose more than seven per cent after the owner of the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands announced a special dividend in the fourth quarter, at [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 7, 2012 RBS John Owen has been appointed chief executive of the bank’s international banking business. He assumes the position following Scott Barton’s decision to leave RBS at the end of August. Owen joined the bank in 2011, and has also previously held senior management roles at Credit Suisse, UBS and Bank of America. Katten Muchin Rosenman [...]
FTSE shrugs off Standard Chartered slump to reach a four-month high August 7, 2012 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 climbed to its highest close in four months yesterday, with heavyweight miners and energy stocks rallying on expectations of global economic stimulus and outweighing a steep sell off in Standard Chartered. The bank’s shares plunged 16.4 per cent in their biggest one-day sell off in four years after New York’s top bank [...]
Standard Chartered is the victim of US warfare against British banking August 7, 2012 STANDARD Chartered, one of the few British banks hitherto left untainted by allegations of misconduct, saw its share price nosedive yesterday, after accusations by a New York regulator that it had violated sanctions against Iran. I’m now left more convinced than ever that US politicians and regulators have a hidden objective in exposing the wrong-doings [...]
InterContinental to return $1bn as profits rise August 7, 2012 InterContinental, the world’s biggest hotelier, cheered investors by promising to return $1bn (£642m) to them partially funded from the planned sale of a New York hotel as it posted a rise in profits boosted by trade in the US and China. The British-based group, home to the Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn as well as InterContinental [...]
Another banking scandal was the last thing the City needed August 6, 2012 JUST when it felt as if it couldn’t get any worse for the City, it is now Standard Chartered’s turn to be engulfed in a major scandal. The bank – which didn’t need a bailout and is hugely successful thanks to its emerging market focus – stands accused by US regulators of having deliberately ignored [...]