LSE cries foul at rival bid for Canada’s TMX May 15, 2011 THE BID threatening to derail the London Stock Exchange’s agreed merger with Canadian peer TMX Group should raise significant regulatory concerns, the chief of the London bourse has claimed. A consortium of Canadian banks and pension funds, known together as the Maple group, tabled a counterbid to the LSE’s offer at the weekend. But speaking [...]
RBS GIVES BACK WITH BORIS BUSINESS DEAL May 15, 2011 GOOD to see that RBS, 83 per cent owned by the taxpayer, is giving something back, after the bank donated £275,000 to Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s “Business Bootcamps”. The scheme, launched last Friday, aims to help London’s fledgling entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground through a series of bootcamp-style workshops run by business [...]
Industrial output rises less than expected May 12, 2011 Industrial output rose much less than expected in March, official data showed, dousing hopes that the economy may have fared better than initially reported in the first three months of this year. The Office for National Statistics said industrial output rose 0.3 in March after a 1.2 per cent fall, less than half the 0.8 [...]
Gulliver’s off to quiet start at HSBC May 11, 2011 IN the ever changing world of banking, it was the turn of HSBC’s new chief executive Stuart Gulliver yesterday to inform investors of his bank’s strategy for the future. In recent weeks, both Bob Diamond of Barclays and António Horta-Osório of Lloyds Banking Group, have had a turn at imposing their personalities at their new [...]
UK’s trade gap widens despite strong services May 11, 2011 HOPES of an export-led recovery were dealt a minor blow yesterday, as the UK’s trade deficit was shown to have widened in March. The deficit in goods and services grew to £3bn in March, from £2.7bn in February, while visible exports fell by 3.4 per cent compared to February. Services exports continued to grow, however, [...]
Tesco names City grandee as new chair May 11, 2011 TESCO yesterday announced that Sir Richard Broadbent will become its next chairman. Sir Richard (pictured), who is deputy chairman at Barclays, will join Tesco as a non-executive director in July. He will take over the reins from Tesco chairman David Reid, who retires in November. The City grandee was tipped to take over at insurer [...]
HSBC plans £2.1bn savings May 11, 2011 HSBC is reviewing its US cards business and streamlining its wealth management and retail banking operations as it eyes savings of up to $3.5bn (£2.1bn), Europe’s biggest bank has said. HSBC said the savings would help it reduce the proportion of revenue spent on expenses to 48-52 per cent by 2013 from 61 per cent [...]
Barclays wins $1bn on Lehman payout May 10, 2011 BARCLAYS yesterday won a $1.1bn (£682m) payout from the trustee of Lehman Brothers’ estate after agreeing a value for disputed assets linked to its purchase of Lehman’s US arm. The payment settles a dispute over how much “clearance box” assets that were held to facilitate the clearance of securities trading should be worth. A US [...]
Huge Chinese trade surplus provokes US May 10, 2011 CHINESE exports hit a record high in April, it was revealed yesterday, pushing its trade surplus to nearly four times the expected level. The news coincided with the third round of official talks between Chinese and US authorities in Washington DC, with the spotlight yet again on Beijing’s management of the yuan. US Treasury secretary [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 9, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES SAMOA TO MOVE BACK TO THE FUTURE Samoa, the tiny Pacific Ocean island state, is travelling through time to improve its economic prospects. In a vote of confidence for the Asian century, the country has decided to shift the jagged International Date Line to its east at the end of this year, which [...]