How will Francois Hollande’s victory in the French presidential election affect the City? May 8, 2012 WELL Syed Kamall His greatest enemy is finance and his strategy for defeating it is taxing it to death. Francois Hollande has made quite clear how he detests bankers. He has also been shouting loudly about his plans to introduce a 75 per cent tax rate on all income above €1m and a unilateral financial [...]
Court in Germany rules against Microsoft in tech patent fight May 2, 2012 A COURT in Mannheim ruled yesterday that Microsoft had infringed Motorola Mobility’s patents, and ordered Microsoft to remove its popular Xbox 360 gaming consoles and Windows 7 operating system software from the German market. However, Microsoft said that the ruling did not mean that its products would be taken off retailers’ shelves because a US [...]
Abu Dhabi ruling family and Li Ka-Shing vie for airports stake April 29, 2012 TWO of the wealthiest investors from Abu Dhabi and China are competing to back Manchester Airports Group’s bid for Stansted Airport. The group, which owns East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports, is looking to raise approximately £1bn to bid for the London airport should BAA place it on the market later this year. Li Ka-Shing, [...]
BAA offloads Edinburgh for shock £800m April 23, 2012 THE dismantling of BAA’s British interests moved forward yesterday when it agreed to sell Edinburgh airport to City airport owner Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for a surprise £807m. GIP, an investment fund founded by Credit Suisse and General Electric, beat a consortium led by JP Morgan Asset Management’s infrastructure fund. The price dwarfs the £500m [...]
FPC is set to hit lending, warns HSBC chairman April 22, 2012 HSBC chairman Douglas Flint has joined the chorus of criticism against the Bank of England’s new financial policy committee (FPC) and warned it could reduce the pool of capital, increase lending costs and hit borrowing. Flint used a major speech to warn of the “material impact” the committee could have on access to credit and [...]
Wolfson prize: Top euro exit plans chosen April 4, 2012 HUNDREDS of economists took up the challenge issued by Lord Wolfson last year – to come up with a practical plan for a country to leave the Eurozone, minimising the pain for it and the remaining members. Five of those entries have made the short-list, which was announced yesterday, and, following further revisions on the [...]
WOLFSON PRIZE: THE SHORTLIST April 4, 2012 JENS NORDVIG Nomura Securities Jens and his colleague Nick Firoozye argue the treatment of foreign law debt contracts is of crucial importance because there is around €10 trillion outstanding. Their essay says debt contracts falling under national or local law should be redenominated into a new currency, while debt contracts falling under foreign law should [...]
LSE’s Rolet passes key LCH takeover test April 4, 2012 LONDON Stock Exchange (LSE) boss Xavier Rolet passed a crucial test of his leadership yesterday when his shareholders backed the takeover of clearing house LCH.Clearnet, his first major deal. LSE and LCH.Clearnet shareholders voted overwhelmingly to ratify Rolet’s plan to take up to 60 per cent of the clearing operator with an offer of €20 [...]
Entwhistle looks to raise £75m to launch new UK bank Scoban April 2, 2012 British financier Ray Entwistle is hoping to raise £75m to get his new private bank, Scoban, up and running although he said the process was taking longer than planned. Entwistle, who spent much of his career at private bank Adam & Co and helped sell the firm to Royal Bank of Scotland in 1993, said [...]
The law firm boss who’s not moving anywhere but up April 1, 2012 LAST weekend, Bryan Hughes found himself hanging 50ft above the ground, attached to nothing but a rope. In an effort to face his son’s fear of heights he’d taken him on the high wires at Center Parcs, but when they reached the highest point Hughes found himself feeling a growing sense of panic. “I made [...]