WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 23, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES COMPANIES NOW TURN TO PRIVATE PLACEMENTS FOR FUNDING Private placement deals – whereby companies tap investors directly for loans – are on track for one of their strongest years, highlighting the extent to which companies are seeking to diversify their funding sources away from banks. Companies tapped the market for $27.4bn in the [...]
HSBC first in line for stake in Nedbank August 23, 2010 HSBC yesterday confirmed it is in exclusive talks with insurer Old Mutual to acquire up to 70 per cent of the shares in Nedbank, South Africa’s fourth largest lender, in a bid to aggressively ramp up its offering in the country. The parties have not disclosed the terms of a potential deal, though analysts yesterday [...]
AIG pays back $4bn of loans from taxpayer August 23, 2010 BAILED-OUT insurer American International Group (AIG) said yesterday it paid back nearly $4bn (£3bn) in US loans in its single largest cash payment so far to reduce its debt to taxpayers. The payment reduces the size of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s credit facility by that amount to about $30bn. The outstanding principal [...]
S&P takes Pru off credit watch after strong results August 17, 2010 RATING agency Standard & Poor’s has rewarded Prudential for its forecast-beating results and better-than-expected costs on the failed AIA deal by removing it from “credit watch”. S&P put the insurance giant on notice in March due to concerns over the balance sheet strains involved in its $35.5bn (£22.8bn) pursuit of AIG’s Far Eastern arm. Yesterday [...]
FSA bans five insurance execs and hands out £150,000 fine over fraud August 17, 2010 THE Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned five individuals in relation to insurance fraud and given one director a near-record fine of £150,000. The FSA said yesterday that the five insurance executives whom it had banned had shown complete disregard for the interests of their customers. Andrew Jeffery, a director of Jeffery Flanders Limited, was [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS August 17, 2010 MORE DISCLOSURE FOR PERFORMANCE FEES This was the recommendation made by Lipper, the independent fund research company. It conducted a survey looking at whether performance fees actually help align the interests of fund managers and investors. It found that two-thirds of UK funds can charge a performance fee if they beat a falling benchmark. Lipper [...]
Britain should support banks, not vilify them August 15, 2010 AS fears over a double-dip recession have intensified in the past week, with economic data in the UK, US and elsewhere suggesting the global recovery is slowing, many commentators have again turned their attention to the banks. Even as the banks return to profit, the argument goes, they are constraining growth by reducing lending to [...]
AIG hit with a $1.9bn loss on Fortress August 11, 2010 AMERICAN International Group (AIG) said yesterday it will sell most of its consumer finance unit to Fortress Investment Group and take a $1.9bn (£1.2bn) pre-tax loss due to the sale. AIG, majority owned by the US government, is selling 80 per cent of American General Finance to Fortress managed funds and affiliates as it restructures [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 11, 2010 Coutts The private bank has appointed Jeff Stubberfield as a commercial banker in its media banking team, looking after clients in the music, TV and entertainment business. Stubberfield has over 15 years of experience in financial services and joins from Barclays, where he spent eight years, latterly as a relationship director managing a portfolio of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 10, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES HIGH COURT RULES INVESTOR BROKE BUY-OUT FUND CONTRACT An important precedent for the private equity industry has been set by a High Court ruling that Robert Adair, chairman of oil group Melrose Resources, breached a contract by refusing to put more money into Advantage Capital’s buy-out fund. Adair, who owns more than half [...]