WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 12, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES NIGERIA APPROVES $2.5BN BID FOR NITEL Nigeria has approved a controversial $2.5bn offer for the country’s main fixed-line telecoms group, but has demanded that the winning consortium come up with a $750m downpayment to secure the sale. The approval follows years of ill-fated efforts to sell off Nitel, which has withered since liberalisation [...]
Meddling with forex markets is risky October 11, 2010 ONE of the biggest problems in the City today is that so few people have worked in financial markets long enough to remember how things used to be just 25 years ago. This damaging lack of a collective memory helps to explain why so many investors remain so relaxed about the prospect of currency wars [...]
London float for Russian internet firm October 11, 2010 A Russian internet service provider part-owned by billionaire Alisher Usmanov is floating on the London market to raise an estimated $500m-$750m (£314.7m-£472.1m). Usmanov and other investors in Mail.ru Group plan to offer up to 15 per cent of the group’s share capital, giving it a market value of about $5bn, a source close to the [...]
Potash plans break up to avoid BHP bid October 10, 2010 POTASHCORP, the Canadian chemicals giant, is believed to be working on a potential break up of the company as one way of fending off a $38.6bn (£24.1bn) hostile bid from the mining company BHP Billiton. The plan is among several strategies being worked on at Potash – whose advisers include RBC Capital Markets, Goldman Sachs [...]
Cool Britannia lives on October 10, 2010 COOL Britannia is alive and kicking, or at least it is in the luxury goods market. The Chinese and Indians might be stealing a march on the UK when it comes to manufacturing, services, and just about everything else, but they want to do it while wearing high-end British brands. That’s good news for Burberry, [...]
All businesses are wealth creators October 5, 2010 WHEN you think of a wealth-creator, don’t think of a tycoon in a glass tower – or so David Cameron will tell the Tory party conference today. Think instead of a window cleaner, or a female entrepreneur who spends every night balancing her books, he will add. The Prime Minister is right to celebrate those [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 5, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES HEDGE FUND MANAGER ENTERS BEAR MARKET A disgraced hedge fund manager is to sell one of the world’s most valuable collections of teddy bears at a London auction later this month. Paul Greenwood, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges last year, will sell his £1.2m collection of Steiff teddy bears at Christies International [...]
Eurozone uncertainty keeps bunds climbing October 4, 2010 GERMAN bunds made gains across the curve yesterday as expectations of further US quantitative easing (QE) increased and the Eurozone producer price index (PPI) indicated a lack of inflationary pressure in the pipeline. Over the last few weeks the German bund price has gradually travelled upwards reaching a value of 13,182.5 yesterday at 7:45pm (see [...]
BHP Billiton takeover of Potash could cost Canada over £1bn in lost taxes October 4, 2010 BHP BILLITON’S $39bn (£24.6bn) hostile bid for Potash cleared a hurdle yesterday, as an independent report found that BHP is a more suitable owner than potential rival Sinochem. The report, commissioned by the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, said that BHP’s takeover could cost the area at least C$2bn (£1.23bn)?in lost taxes, though the government could [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 3, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph EURO MAY NOT SURVIVE, CAUTIONS STIGLITZ One of the world’s leading economists has warned that the future of the euro is “looking bleak” and the fragile European economic recovery could be irreparably damaged by a “wave of austerity” sweeping the continent. Joseph Stiglitz, the former chief economist of the World [...]