SOVEREIGN SCORES A COUP AS IT NETS BANK GRANDEE BOB WIGLEY December 16, 2009 MY MY , but hasn’t it been an eventful few months for Aim-listed home equity release firm Sovereign Reversions? Back in August, Countrywide chairman Harry Hill and a couple of fellow dissident shareholders caused a touch of controversy by trying to oust Sovereign’s board and put the company into run-off by sending out pre-ticked proxy [...]
CITY TYPES FANCY A FLUTTER ON RACE GAME December 6, 2009 AN ENTERPRISING businessman, a barrel-load of twenty quid tickets, the chance to win a lucrative prize of your dreams… sound familiar? It may well do, given ex-Nomura banker Andrew Paul’s recent venture selling tickets for the chance to win his mansion, Aston Martin and power boat, which is now going to be made into a [...]
NEW EU REGULATORS GIVEN HUGE POWERS December 2, 2009 BRUSSELS grabbed huge new powers over the financial services industry yesterday amid growing fears that excessive red tape is destroying the City of London’s competitiveness. European finance ministers agreed a sweeping new regulatory framework that will see the EU take centre stage in the supervision of banks, markets and insurance companies. Ministers agreed to the [...]
EU’s power grab is a disaster for London December 2, 2009 FIRST they came for the hedge funds, then private equity – now it is the turn of the banks, the securities industry and the insurers. The EU’s power grab is almost complete; it is pumping out new proposals on everything from derivatives to asset management virtually every day. The fact that most of these are [...]
Rivals lash out at LSE after damaging technology glitch November 26, 2009 RIVALS to the London Stock Exchange expressed outrage yesterday after a crippling technical glitch put a stop to trading, claiming investors had effectively been duped by an inability to route their custom to other venues. The problem brought trading to a halt for over three hours on the London Stock Exchange. During that time, the [...]
Danish and French take on Swisscom November 25, 2009 FRANCE Telecom yesterday struck a deal with Danish peer TDC to boost their position in the small but affluent Swiss market and challenge local leader Swisscom. France Telecom will pay €1.5bn (£1.35bn) for a 75 per cent stake in a new company that has the assets and clients of TDC’s Sunrise and France Telecom’s Orange [...]
Efforts to stem FX inflows are futile November 24, 2009 WHEN Brazil introduced a tax on capital inflows last month, it was a clear sign that governments are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact on their economies and on their currencies of a weakening dollar, and of foreign investors piling into their stock markets and bonds in search of higher yields. Other emerging nations have [...]
CBI boss Richard Lambert can see early signs of economic recovery November 19, 2009 THE worst is over for the British economy. At least, that was the message from Richard Lambert, the Confederation of Business Industry’s (CBI) thoughtful director-general, when we meet. “We have finally hit the deck,” he tells me, leaning forward. “Things are a lot better now than in the first quarter of this year. Where we [...]
Three banks get EU approval November 18, 2009 Plans by three major European banks to sell chunks of their operations in return for state aid were approved by EU authorities yesterday, marking the latest regulatory-enforced financial break-ups. In reviewing a raft of bank bailouts across the 27 European Union member states, the European Commission has forced lenders to divest assets, close branches, reduce [...]
Ray of hope for victims of bubblenomics November 16, 2009 THERE is much to be learnt from Japan’s disastrous performance since it suffered the mother of all bubbles in the late 1980s. Its woes were originally caused by excessive interest rate cuts in reaction to the dollar’s 51 per cent devaluation against the yen between 1985 and 1987, which hurt Japan’s export industries. Huge amounts [...]