Taylor Wimpey refinancing in a bid to beef up land purchases July 11, 2010 HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey has returned to the negotiating table with lenders, in a bid to access funding for land purchases. The company, which completed a £1.55bn debt restructuring last year, now wants to refinance its bonds and bank loans, according to the Financial Times. Although the firm’s repayments on debts are not due until July [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 11, 2010 Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity The charity has appointed fund management veteran Nichola Pease as a trustee, taking on the position held by ex-Man Group chief Stanley Fink until last month. Pease is deputy chairman of JO Hambro Capital Management, which she joined in 1998 as chief executive. She also previously helped to set up [...]
JAPANESE MARKET July 11, 2010 Japanese shares and government bonds are likely to face initial selling pressure today after the government lost an upper house election – a reverse that could thwart its ambitions to curb public debt. Longer term, though, markets will eye which smaller parties the ruling Democratic Party allies with, what policy compromises it makes and whether [...]
Threadneedle Street keeps monetary policy unchanged again this month July 8, 2010 THE Bank of England this month held interest rates, keeping monetary policy ultra-loose. Interest rates remained at their historic low of 0.5 per cent and the stock of asset purchases was held at £200bn. Economists had expected the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to hold fire this month and said it would have been an enormous [...]
Slow start for Mickelson July 8, 2010 GOLF: Phil Mickelson suffered a disappointing opening round 71 at the Barclays Scottish Open as he attempts to overhaul Tiger Woods as world No1. Mickelson needs to finish first or second at Loch Lomond to leapfrog Woods ahead of next week’s Open, but struggled with a level-par round. Ulsterman Darren Clarke leads on six-under-par, ahead [...]
AT A GLANCE | KEY DETAILS OF THE STRESS TESTS July 7, 2010 The objective The stress tests aim to assess the resilience of the EU banking sector and banks’ ability to absorb further possible shocks on credit and market risks, including sovereign risks, and to assess their current dependence on taxpayer support measures. How the tests will work The programme will be conducted on a bank-by-bank basis [...]
Hayward meets Abu Dhabi crown prince over BP’s future July 7, 2010 BP’S embattled chief executive Tony Hayward yesterday met with Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan amidst suggestions the oil rich country could buy a stake as high as 10 per cent in the oil major. The group would not be drawn on the exact details of the conversation but sources suggested the [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 7, 2010 BMW Barclays Capital reiterates a “strong buy” for BMW, based on its new forecasts. BarCap said that it believes that the luxury market provides a safehaven in the volatile European auto sector, due to its net exports, strong emerging market sales and lack of exposure to scrappage schemes. PERSIMMON JP Morgan Cazenove said that Persimmon [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 7, 2010 Religare Enterprises The Indian financial services group has appointed Stuart Pearce, pictured, and Kathryn Matthews as independent board directors. Pearce has over 35 years of experience in the sector and was previously chief executive and director general of the Qatar Financial Centre Authority. He has also worked as chief executive of UK investment management at [...]
FTSE is boosted by banks as stress test fears begin to ease July 7, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading share index ended higher after a choppy session yesterday, driven by a recovery in banking stocks on reassuring comments from US peer State Street and an easing of stress test fears. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was 49.82 points higher, or up 1.0 per cent, at 5,014.82, its high for the [...]