EUROPEAN REPORT May 18, 2009 EUROPEAN equities closed higher yesterday as financial stocks climbed on hopes a recession in top global economies was abating, while energy shares tracked higher crude oil prices. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed 2.4 per cent higher at 859.88 points after falling as low as 827.32. The index, which slumped 45 per [...]
Banks lead the FTSE higher and bulls reboot interest in sofware companies May 18, 2009 THE FTSE 100 sprung to life yesterday, driven by banks which were led higher by confirmation of Lloyds Banking Group’s rights issue and the announcement that Sir Victor Blank would step down as its chairman. The index erased almost half of last week’s losses, closing 2.3 per cent, or 98.34 points, higher at 4,446.45 points. [...]
Blank’s exit won’t end Lloyds’ troubles May 17, 2009 IT was always Sir Victor Blank, one of the Labour Party’s favourite businessmen, who was most likely to be Lloyds Banking Group’s sacrificial lamb. It was he, after all, who was the main driver of Lloyds TSB’s ill-fated takeover of HBOS; he first discussed the idea of the deal with Gordon Brown over drinks in [...]
BGI suitors aim to scupper CVC iShares deal May 17, 2009 FUND management firm Blackrock and Bank of New York Mellon are believed to have tabled bids for Barclays’ BGI unit, valued at around $10bn (£6.6bn). The division is up for sale as part of a “go-shop” clause within an already agreed deal for BGI subsidiary iShares, due to be sold to private equity house CVC [...]
Barclays in talks to sell its BGI unit May 14, 2009 BARCLAYS has entered preliminary talks with US money manager BlackRock as well as other potential buyers for its prized asset management arm Barclays Global Investors (BGI). Any sell-off could generate at least $10bn (£6.6bn) for the bank but the ongoing talks could easily lead to nothing. The Barclays board is understood only to want to [...]
A Barclays sell-off would be a mistake May 14, 2009 IF Barclays does end up selling its Barclays Global Investors division to a rival such as BlackRock, it will be faced with two major problems. The first would be one of credibility: how can Barclays continue to operate as a universal bank if it lacks an asset manager? Selling iShares makes some sense; the business was [...]
FTSE 100 nudges higher as banks start to look oversold May 14, 2009 THE FTSE 100 edged up by 0.7 per cent yesterday, snapping a three-day losing run, with gains in banks and miners offsetting weakness in oil producers hurt by weaker crude prices. The index closed 31.21 points higher at 4,362.58 in a choppy session. “It still looks too early to predict the end of this two [...]
Barclays bounces back to lead the market rally May 13, 2009 BARCLAYS is sitting pretty at the top of the UK’s rebounding stocks over the last three months, new figures from Motley Fool (Fool.co.uk) showed yesterday. The bank’s share price has soared from 61p on 9 March to 281p as of Monday’s closing price, a gain of 360 per cent, as UK lenders began to claw [...]
MBIA faces legal battle May 13, 2009 Barclays and HSBC are among 18 or more of the world’s largest financial institutions that yesterday started legal action against MBIA, the bond insurer, claiming its recent split into a good and bad business wrongfully cut their odds of getting paid out on policies. The banks filed their complaint in a New York State Supreme [...]
As finance changes graduates look to risk-management May 13, 2009 LOOKING back a couple of years, it seems as though ignoring risk had practically become a sport among those who drove the banking boom. So much for hindsight – but it was a failure of foresight that contributed to the financial catastrophes of last year. Foresight in the financial industry is the job of risk [...]