Nightmare for Dreams as insurer pulls cover despite refinancing August 7, 2011 BED retailer Dreams has been hit with a vote of no confidence from the insurer of its suppliers, which suspended its cover of about a fifth of Dreams’ suppliers last week. Euler Hermes, which insures suppliers against their customers going bankrupt, put Dreams’ suppliers on notice that its cover would end in 30 days, leaving [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 7, 2011 Survitec Group The manufacturer and distributor for the marine, defence and aerospace survival technology industries that was bought by private equity firm Warburg Pincus in 2010 has appointed Paul Lester CBE as chairman. Lester, the former chief executive of VT Group and group managing director of Balfour Beatty, is currently chairman of Greenergy and non-executive [...]
Lloyds pushed into red by insurance mis-selling August 4, 2011 Compensating customers who were mis-sold insurance pushed Lloyds £3.25bn into the red in the first half but the loss was broadly as expected and the bank reiterated its full-year guidance. The banks shares fell by more than five per cent after the announcement. Excluding the £3.2bn Lloyds had already earmarked to cover mis-selling liabilities, the [...]
Barclays to axe 3,000 jobs as profit falls August 2, 2011 Barclays will cut about 3,000 jobs this year as the industry grapples with tougher regulation and the impact of a spreading sovereign debt crisis on investment banking operations. First half profits at the bank fell by a third after a drop in bond trading activity at its investment bank and a charge to compensate customers [...]
HSBC unveils surprise rise in earnings August 1, 2011 HSBC defied the equities gloom to jump 2.19 per cent yesterday after unveiling a rise in profits versus expectations of a decline. The bank saw its half-year pre-tax profit rise to $11.5bn (£7.1bn), three per cent higher than the same period last year, allowing it to boost its dividend for the period by 13 per [...]
Nedbank first half profits rise August 1, 2011 NEDBANK Group, South Africa’s fourth-largest bank, reported a 26 per cent rise in first-half profit yesterday, helped by a drop in bad debts and its push to boost revenue from fees. Nedbank, majority owned by insurer Old Mutual, was hit hard by bad debts after 2009’s recession took over 1m jobs out of the economy, [...]
Virgin and Resolution ‘circle Northern Rock’ July 28, 2011 Businessmen Richard Branson and Clive Cowdery, founder of insurance takeover specialist Resolution, are expected to be among the bidders for nationalised bank Northern Rock, people familiar with the matter said. Branson’s Virgin Money and Cowdery’s Resolution were likely to make first-round expressions of interest in Northern Rock this week to UK Financial Investments, the organisation [...]
Crisis shows risk can’t be abolished July 27, 2011 IT is going to be a hot summer – and I’m not even talking about the weather. After a brief and irrational lull after last week’s pseudo-deal in the Eurozone, the global sovereign debt crisis is accelerating again, with the row over extending America’s debt ceiling becoming ever more farcical. Gold hit close to $1,630, [...]
BUSINESSES CALL FOR GROWTH PLAN July 26, 2011 BUSINESS leaders, economists and Mayor Boris Johnson demanded strong measures to boost growth yesterday, after figures revealed that the economy grew by an unspectacular 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of the year. While statisticians partially blamed sluggish growth on one-off factors such as the royal wedding, a persistently weak economy could see the [...]
It’s as if the coalition wanted to fail July 25, 2011 IMAGINE you were trying to cripple private sector growth and throttle the recovery. Yes, I know only a fool would want to do that. But seriously – what would you do? Here are a few ideas. For a start, you would try and tie up businesses with as much red tape as possible. You would [...]