Stress tests leave cloud of uncertainty July 17, 2011 UK BANKS would see €92.8bn wiped off the value of their loan books under the stress scenario devised by the European Banking Authority (EBA) – but the tests do not give a clear indication of how much of that would be due to sovereign debt problems and did not test the effect of a default [...]
Barclays to axe jobs in India July 17, 2011 Barclays has cut jobs in India as a result of merging the client relationship teams of its commercial and investment banking units, a company spokeswoman said yesterday. Barclays Capital, the investment banking unit of the UK-based bank, and the company’s commercial banking division, are combining the teams that focus on servicing corporate clients in India, [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 17, 2011 Anesco The energy efficiency solutions firm has appointed Hedley Major as chief financial officer to oversee all financial operations of the company. Hedley previously worked for software company System C, where he negotiated the firm’s acquisition by McKesso. Prior to that, Major was finance director at Octopus Investments. Anesco’s principal investors are Scottish & Southern [...]
Eight banks fail latest Europe stress test July 15, 2011 More than 90 per cent of Europe’s banks have passed the latest round of stress tests designed to flag up weaknesses in institutions’ ability to survive large future shocks. The test results showed just eight banks failing the test as they did not hold the minimum five per cent core tier one capital ratios needed [...]
FTSE on back foot as bank stress tests loom July 15, 2011 The FTSE mirrored markets across Europe in early trading as investors awaited the results of bank strss tests with some lenders expected to fail to meet the criteria required. With persistent fears over the Eurozone debt crisis and the threat of a US rating downgrade casting a shadow market sentiment was tepid. European shares overall [...]
BHP Billiton to buy Petrohawk for £7.4bn July 15, 2011 Top global miner BHP Billiton will buy US gas producer Petrohawk Energy Corp for $12.1 billion (£7.4bn), ramping up its bets on the booming but environmentally controversial shale gas industry. The agreed all-cash deal is pitched at a 65 per cent premium to Petrohawk last-traded share price, and follows BHP’s $4.75bn purchase of Chesapeake Energy’s [...]
Car dealer Pendragon to raise £75.2m through deeply discounted rights issue July 14, 2011 LISTED car dealer Pendragon yesterday said it plans to raise about £75.2m through a rights issue to reduce its debt. The nine-for-eight issue is to be priced at 10p per new ordinary share, representing an eye-watering 54 per cent discount to the stock’s Wednesday close. Shares in Pendragon had closed at 21.75p per unit on [...]
Commodity falls and fears for stress tests see FTSE decline July 14, 2011 FALLS among commodity issues sapped the strength of Britain’s top share index yesterday, as worries over global growth clouded the demand outlook for metals and oils. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 59.48 points, or one per cent at 5,846.95, reversing all and more of the previous session’s 0.6 per cent rally. [...]
Ringfence plan slammed in ICB feedback July 13, 2011 PROPOSALS for a ringfence around the retail arm of Britain’s major lenders have been slammed as costly and damaging to Britain’s competitiveness by banks in their feedback submitted to the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB). The responses to the ICB’s interim report, published yesterday, show that even some banks that would be little-affected have serious [...]
FTSE 100 CHAIRMEN BACK DRIVE FOR MORE WOMEN ON UK BOARDS July 13, 2011 THE DEBATE about how to get more businesswomen into the boardroom continued last night at the Lansdowne Club, as FTSE 100 chairmen came to hear BAE Systems’ chairman Dick Olver outline his plans for reform. “It is not a matter of quotas; it is a question of better decisions in the boardroom,” said Olver, who [...]