Northern Foods war heats up March 2, 2011 Chicken tycoon Ranjit Singh Boparan has been forced to extend the deadline on his £342m offer for Northern Foods after just 23 per cent of the firm’s shareholders other than himself accepted the bid by yesterday’s cut-off. The delay gives rival Greencore and its adviser Barclays Capital two more weeks to prepare a counter-offer in [...]
Lisbon hangs on in debt sale March 2, 2011 PORTUGAL managed to sell off €1bn (£850m) worth of debt at a short-dated bond auction yesterday, with one-year yields rising to 4.06 per cent from 3.99 per cent for similarly dated bonds at its last sale. But with the scale of European Central Bank (ECB) intervention unclear, markets are still waiting to see a comprehensive [...]
BarCap downbeat on UK growth March 2, 2011 Barclays Capital has revised down its forecast for UK growth in 2011, it revealed yesterday. Citing the revised 0.6 per cent drop in GDP for the final three months of last year, it announced a gloomier outlook of 1.7 per cent growth for 2011, down from its previous two per cent projection.
FTSE slips lower but profits from StanChart help cheer March 2, 2011 RALLYING banks boosted by results from Standard Chartered helped Britain’s top share index pare losses yesterday, but the index still closed lower as geopolitical concerns continued to dog sentiment. The FTSE 100 closed down 20.87 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5,914.89, as lingering political concerns in the Arab world continued to dent confidence and [...]
FTSE finishes in the red despite late rally March 2, 2011 The FTSE slumped below the 5,900 mark this morning on continued Middle East unrest fears, but recovered ground after a boost to Wall St. The FTSE 100 still closed the day below 6,000, though, 0.35 per cent down at 5,914.89. It has lost ground in eight of the last nine sessions. Michael Hewson said the [...]
What the other papers say this morning March 1, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES TOP 10 HEDGE FUNDS MAKE $28BN The top 10 hedge funds made $28bn for clients in the second half of last year, $2bn more than the net profits of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Barclays and HSBC combined, according to new data. Even the biggest of the hedge funds have only a [...]
Senior HSBC bankers in London get half the pay of those abroad March 1, 2011 SENIOR HSBC bankers based in London are getting less than half the pay of their non-UK counterparts, figures released by the bank have shown. UK-based senior staff pocketed an average of £1.22m in total pay last year, of which £927,000 was bonus payments, whereas equivalent staff based outside the UK took home more than double [...]
Citi sells Egg credit cards to Barclays March 1, 2011 BARCLAYS is buying the UK credit card portfolio of Egg from the online bank’s US owner Citi, transferring more than 1m customer accounts to the Barclaycard brand. The value of the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, has not been disclosed, but Barclay’s said it was buying the assets at a “significant discount” to [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 1, 2011 Safestore Holdings The self-storage retailer has appointed Peter Gowers as chief executive, following the retirement of his predecessor Steve Williams. Gowers, 38, joins from InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), where most recently he was chief executive, Asia Pacific. Gowers began his career at Arthur D. Little before joining the strategy group of Bass in 1999. He [...]
Barclays to buy Egg credit card assets March 1, 2011 Barclays is to buy the British credit card assets of online bank Egg from US lender Citigroup for an undisclosed price, as part of plans to boost its retail banking business. “The acquisition of Egg’s UK credit card accounts has been priced at a significant discount to gross receivables. Based on current projections, we expect [...]