POKER FACE BY BANKERS AS RANK IS DEALT BID May 8, 2011 TALK about raising the stakes. Just days after Rank Group held its annual poker tournament, the company’s largest investor Guoco Group raised its holding to 40.8 per cent, triggering a mandatory offer for the gaming business. Strangely, Quek Leng Chan, the Malaysian billionaire who controls Guoco, was nowhere to be seen as the cards played [...]
Diageo sales rise fuelled by emerging markets May 5, 2011 Diageo, the world’s biggest spirits group, beat forecasts with a seven per cent rise in underlying sales for the first three months of 2011 as strong emerging market growth offset a weak Europe. The British maker of Smirnoff vodka, Captain Morgan rum and Guinness beer also stuck to its forecast to see higher profit growth [...]
HSBC to sell off $30bn of assets in strategic overhaul May 3, 2011 HSBC is set to announce some $30bn (£18.2bn) in asset sales as part of chief executive Stuart Gulliver’s strategic rebalancing of the bank. Insiders have confirmed the $30bn figure to City A.M., which was estimated by Barclays Capital analyst Rohith Chandra-Rajan in a note to investors. The sales will form part of implementing what Gulliver [...]
Japan launch boosts shares in Man Group May 3, 2011 SHARES in Man Group, Europe’s largest listed hedge fund, leapt yesterday after it revealed it had raised a bumper $1.5bn (£910m) from Japanese investors for a new fund. The Nomura Global Trend open-ended fund, which tracks Man Group’s AHL?managed futures strategy, is the firm’s biggest product launch since the financial crisis. Japanese bank Nomura marketed [...]
US stocks slide as investors cash in May 3, 2011 US stocks fell yesterday as investors questioned the sustainability of the rally in light of fresh worries about earnings growth in the coming quarters. Investors targeted recent top performers, particularly energy shares, which were also hit by a fall in oil prices. The S&P energy index dropped 2.4 per cent, while oil futures lost more [...]
In the long run the Aussie is a wager against entrepreneurs May 3, 2011 ON 2 May, the Australian dollar climbed to a high of $1.1011, not reached since its 1983 float. Despite a small retreat, this upward trend is largely expected to resume on the back of continued demand for commodities and a hawkish Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). Yet over the long-term, trouble in China and technological [...]
Protests, earthquakes, wars and bailouts. But no love for the dollar May 3, 2011 THROUGHOUT 2011, we have had sustained periods of uncertainty in the money markets. In the past, uncertainty and turmoil have given rise to rallies for the greenback as a result of investor flight into the safety and liquidity of this safe haven currency. Continued turmoil in the Middle East, concerns over the ongoing European sovereign [...]
China may be larger than US by 2016 April 25, 2011 IF the International Monetary Fund is right, whoever is elected President of the United States next year will be the last American to preside over the world’s largest economy. By 2016, the IMF believes, China will have overtaken the US as the biggest economy – the first time it actually pins a year on this [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 25, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES MPS PRESSURE VICKERS TO DEFINE BANK BONUS RULES Sir John Vickers is facing pressure from senior MPs to widen his work on making banks safer by defining new bonus transparency rules, to provide an early warning of the build-up of risk. Members of the Commons treasury committee will next month urge Sir John [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 20, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES CHINA TO ALTER TAXES IN ATTEMPT TO CUT WEALTH GAP China is to lift the exemption threshold for personal income tax payments in an effort to redistribute the spoils of rapid growth and reduce a widening wealth gap. The level at which Chinese citizens must pay income tax will be raised from Rmb2,000 [...]