Flat sales dog SAB Miller as volumes wane January 19, 2010 Brewing giant SABMiller yesterday reported flat underlying beer volumes for the third quarter as subdued consumer spending continued to take the fizz out of its sales. Shares in the London-listed company ended the day more than two per cent down on the news that volumes for the three months to the end of December were [...]
Greece woes spoil continental party January 18, 2010 EUROPEAN shares rose in early trade yesterday, recovering some of Friday’s losses, with miners gaining on higher metals prices. In morning trading, the FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.6 per cent at 1,058.15 points. Miners were among early gainers, as copper rose on hope that strong Chinese demand could cut inventories. Precious metals were also [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 18, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES BUYOUTS AT 25-YEAR LOW DUE TO LACK OF CREDIT The number of private equity deals in the UK hit a 25-year low last year, as the credit crisis cut off the supply of cheap debt and dissuaded business owners from selling out. There were 117 private equity deals in 2009, fewer than half [...]
Google probes security breach January 18, 2010 GOOGLE is investigating whether a cyber attack on the US firm was an “inside job” by its Chinese workers. Google, the world’s most popular search engine, said last week it may pull out of the world’s biggest internet market after reporting it had been hit by a “sophisticated” cyber-attack on its network that resulted in [...]
JAL files for bankruptcy and begins to restructure January 18, 2010 ASIA’S largest airline by revenues, Japan Airlines, is expected to file for bankruptcy this week as part of a restructuring crafted by a state-backed turnaround fund. Some analysts think a bankruptcy filing would make it easy for Japan Airlines to abandon its deal with AMR, the holding company for American Airlines, in favour of membership [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 17, 2010 FINANCIAL SERVICES CITY’S ROLE AS FINANCIAL CENTRE SET FOR NEW BOOST, SAYS TOP HEDGE FUND London will thrive as a financial centre over the next decade by becoming the natural western hub for emerging market growth, according to one of the City’s best-known hedge funds. In stark contrast to bankers’ doom-laden predictions about the City’s [...]
Google is right to pull out of China January 13, 2010 GOOD on Google. The tech giant now seems almost certain to pull out of China in an astonishing blaze of publicity. It takes real guts to thumb one’s nose at a country of 1.3bn potential consumers; it is even more courageous to accuse the Chinese state of hacking into the e-mail accounts of human rights [...]
Google holds crunch talks January 13, 2010 CRUNCH talks took place yesterday between Google and Chinese authorities after the search-engine giant threatened to quit the country. In a direct challenge to the Chinese government, Google said it would pull out of the country unless it’s allowed to offer “unfiltered” internet searches to web users. Google blamed a series of cyber-attacks, possibly state [...]
CHINA BUBBLE IS A RISK FOR YEN SHORTS January 12, 2010 BORIS SCHLOSSBERG DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT ASK FX strategists what their favourite trade for 2010 is and the chances are most will say long dollar-yen. The conventional wisdom in the forex market – despite last Friday’s disappointing US jobs data – is that US short-term rates will inch higher. Their choice of trade is [...]
Revaluation of the yuan bad news for the Aussie dollar January 12, 2010 PRESSURE has been building on China to let its currency, the yuan, appreciate against the US dollar, to which it is pegged. This week, these calls only intensified after China posted strong trade data, putting the country firmly on course to usurp Germany’s position as the world’s number one exporter. But while Beijing so far [...]