Credit easing targets SMEs March 21, 2012 THE CHANCELLOR officially launched his flagship credit easing scheme in yesterday’s Budget, making £5bn of guarantees available for banks to pass on a subsidy to small businesses. But it also emerged that some banks are setting a minimum floor of £25,000 for loans available through the scheme, cutting out access for many “micro-businesses” that the [...]
FTSE buoyed by retailers as investors eye Budget March 21, 2012 THE FTSE 100 headed up in early trading as retailers regained some momentum while investors were turning their attention to the Chancellor’s budget speech. George Osborne is expected to rejig taxes while seeking to keep his austerity plan on track. However figures showing that that public sector net borrowing hit a record for February cast [...]
it’s goodbye barcap in bank’s big rebrand March 20, 2012 BARCLAYS has never been afraid to shake things up when it comes to branding, regularly changing its logo since the famous Spread Eagle was first adopted back in the 18th century. But now the bank has left itself with nowhere left to go, after saying yesterday it has brought all of its operations under one [...]
Equistone buys Audley Travel March 20, 2012 The private equity house hived off from Barclays last year has taken a majority stake in touring firm Audley Travel in a deal in the region of £90m. Equistone Partners Europe said it bought into the Oxfordshire firm because it had proved to be “resilient” through the downturn. Its founders will remain on the board.
BEST OF THE BROKERS March 20, 2012 ARM HOLDINGS Barclays has upgraded the Cambridge-based chipmaker from “equalweight” to “overweight” and raised its target price to 725p, saying it sees smartphone and tablet growth driving an upside to its expectations, as well as a return to positive estimate momentum. The broker expects ARM to maintain the upper hand versus Intel in tablets, and [...]
Miners peg back FTSE as UK inflation dips again March 20, 2012 Miners pegged the FTSE 100 back in early trading as fears that demand from China for metals was falling sapped investor confidence. BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest miner, fell 1.9 per cent after saying it was seeing signs of “flattening” iron ore demand from China. The sector is pinning its hopes on continuing fast growth [...]
Banks split on £20bn loan plans March 19, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT has been dealt a blow in its flagship credit scheme for small businesses after it failed to get all of the UK’s major banks on board. HSBC, which accounts for 15 per cent of the small business banking market, will not participate in the National Loan Guarantee Scheme (NLGS) unveiled today because the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 19, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES SKY PULLED NEWS STORY ON F1 SHARES The chief executive of British Sky Broadcasting ordered a news story to be removed from the Sky News website after an executive producer complained that it had upset Formula 1 racing teams. Jeremy Darroch intervened after the article, which described a controversial agreement involving F1 chief [...]
Facebook banks get small fee March 19, 2012 Facebook will pay a fee of just 1.1 per cent to underwriters of its initial public offering, a source with knowledge of the company’s plans said yesterday. Facebook’s underwriters include Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Barclays and Allen & Co. Earlier this month, the company also named an additional 25 banks [...]
Zayo agrees $2.2bn deal for AboveNet March 19, 2012 ZAYO Group, a privately-owned fibre-based provider of bandwidth, yesterday agreed to acquire AboveNet for $2.2bn (£1.38bn), after making an offer at $84 a share, 13 per cent above AboveNet’s previous closing price. But shares in AboveNet rose 14 per cent to $84.45 after the announcement, indicating investors expected a better offer. “AboveNet and Zayo’s business [...]