THE WEEK AHEAD February 13, 2011 COMPANY NEWS ● Barclays will release its full year results tomorrow. ● Miner BHP Billiton will release its half year results on Wednesday. ● French bank Societe Generale will release its fourth quarter results on Wednesday. ● On Thursday, bank BNP Paribas will release its fourth quarter results. ● BAE Systems will release its full year results on Thursday. [...]
More suitors emerge for Eon February 10, 2011 Utility giant Eon is thought to have fielded several fresh bids for its UK electricity grid distribution business. US energy supplier PPL, Hong Kong-based CKI and MidAmerican Energy Holdings, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, were among those named yesterday as potential suitors for the business. All three firms already have operations in the UK. [...]
Winter freeze sees jump in energy supply February 10, 2011 INDUSTRIAL production jumped by half a per cent in December, fuelled by a surge in energy supply as households cranked up the heating, official data showed yesterday. Spikes in the supply of electricity (up 12.3 per cent) and gas (up 10.3 per cent) drove up the UK’s index of production, recorded by the Office for [...]
The Malthusian bull market carries on February 10, 2011 IN 1980, two academics, Julian Simon and Paul Ehrlich, agreed a now famous wager. Ehrlich chose five commodity metals and bet that over the next 10 years, they would get more expensive. Ultimately, Simon won, and all five metals – copper, chromium, nickel, tin and tungsten – got progressively less expensive all the way up [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 10, 2011 ARM HOLDINGS RBS rates the technology company “buy” with a target price of 625p. Hewlett Packard’s introduction of the Palm operating system on its PCs later this year could help ARM penetrate the notebook PC market, moving its market share from one per cent in 2011 to 20 per cent by 2015. RBS estimates that [...]
The Wizard of Os: Merlin plan causes cracks in coalition February 9, 2011 GEORGE Osborne’s flagship agreement with banks over bonuses and lending – dubbed project Merlin – was thrown into disarray last night, after a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman was sacked for attacking the deal. Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, was unceremoniously ousted after he said the agreement was “pitiful” and “not as tough as [...]
Merlin claims to boost lending to businesses February 9, 2011 HOUSTON, we have an agreement.” So joked one of the chancellor’s key allies yesterday, clearly relieved to have finally signed a deal of sorts with the four Merlin banks. But the government has got precious little for the weeks it has spent locked in negotiations with HSBC, RBS, Lloyds and Barclays. Here City A.M. looks [...]
State-owned bank chiefs to take bonuses February 9, 2011 LLOYDS and RBS chose yesterday’s unveiling of the final “Merlin” project as the moment to disclose all-share bonuses worth several million pounds for their chief executives. Outgoing Lloyds chief Eric Daniels will take home £1.45m, less than two thirds of the bonus to which he is entitled, while RBS boss Stephen Hester will be awarded [...]
Varley plays dealmaker February 9, 2011 EX-BARCLAYS chief executive John Varley has driven project Merlin from the beginning, acting as the chair and chief organiser of the initiative. Barclays was never obliged to participate in Merlin, unlike part-nationalised RBS and Lloyds, causing a flurry of speculation over Varley’s enthusiasm for the project. New Barclays chief executive officer Bob Diamond was keen [...]
More merger mania as NYSE enters talks February 9, 2011 EXCHANGES worldwide are being swept up in an accelerating wave of consolidation after Deutsche Börse yesterday afternoon revealed it was in advanced talks with NYSE Euronext to create the world’s largest exchanges operator by revenues. Coming just hours after the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Canada’s TMX Group said they would join forces to create [...]