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 [...]
The budget airline that is taking off in poor economic conditions August 6, 2012 ANOTHER month, another sterling set of passenger figures from easyJet. Far from wilting in the heat of the Eurozone’s latest financial turmoil, the carrier has shone, with an almost unbroken spell of traffic growth this year. What’s more, a tight rein on costs has prevented the sort of runaway expenses seen at some of its [...]
Advent’s $3bn mattress deal gives buyout market a bounce August 5, 2012 A GROWING appetite for secondary buyouts was underscored yesterday as Advent International has agreed to acquire a majority stake in mattress company AOT Bedding Super Holdings, in a deal that values the firm at $3bn (£1.9bn). Current investors in the mattress manufacturer are Ares Management LLC and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which will retain [...]