Swiss Re gears up to repay loan to Warren Buffett May 6, 2010 SWISS Re, the world’s second-biggest reinsurer, boosted its capital by around $3bn (£2bn), giving it confidence it can repay a costly convertible loan from billionaire Warren Buffett and regain a key credit rating. A much improved investment performance also enabled the company to beat profit expectations for the first quarter, despite large natural catastrophe claims [...]
Moving away from equities can pay May 4, 2010 THE markets may have recovered from the credit crunch, but the investment community is still trying to navigate a post-crisis world and reduce portfolio risk. New research by Towers Watson, the professional services firm, has found that although many pension funds and institutional investors still rely on equities to generate their returns, in reality a [...]
EC to rein in derivatives May 3, 2010 EUROPEAN politicians are poised to crack down on derivatives trading after blaming speculators for exerbating fears over Greece and Spain’s finances to their own advantage. Internal markets commissioner Michel Barnier will kick off his term by bringing in new rules as early as June. They are expected to fall along lines set out by the [...]
FTSE drops after Spain downgrade April 28, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index closed lower yesterday, extending the previous session’s steep falls, after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s cut Spain’s credit rating to AA, overshadowing strong corporate earnings. The FTSE 100 index closed down 16.91 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 5,586.61, after it tumbled 2.6 per cent on Tuesday — its biggest one-day [...]
Greek crisis rocks markets April 27, 2010 GREECE’s financial chaos threatened to spiral out of control last night, battering world markets as fears rose that other European nations could be swept up into the crisis. The FTSE 100 Index sunk 2.6 per cent to 5603.5 amid a global sell-off with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting 1.9 per cent to 10,991.9, France’s [...]
European insurance industry is braced for pickup in M&A activity April 27, 2010 THE European insurance sector is set for a wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, as companies look for growth opportunities over the next year, Moody’s said yesterday. M&A volume had fallen sharply over the past couple of years, but recent stabilisation of capital markets would provide scope for consolidation, the credit ratings agency added. [...]
Greece moves close to brink April 22, 2010 GREECE’S horrendous week got worse yesterday when its yawning budget deficit was revised by nearly one percentage point, and it was hit with another debt downgrade sparking a fresh bout of worry in bond markets. Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, said the heavily indebted country’s public shortfall would come in at 13.6 per cent [...]
All City firms to be hit by IMF tax April 21, 2010 NON-BANK financial firms were left reeling yesterday as it emerged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) proposes to levy new taxes on all financial institutions, crippling insurers, hedge funds, private equity firms and asset managers as well as banks. Analysts at Credit Suisse estimated that the taxes could cost the European banking industry as much as [...]
Spend £1bn on education, Goldman April 20, 2010 HERE is a suggestion for Goldman Sachs: make an immediate £1bn donation to a special new fund for financial and economic education. Then try and rope in a few more of the big banks and financial institutions, all of whom may be happy to stump up to deflect the tidal wave of populist anti-bonus and [...]
Credit Suisse buys Prudential shares ahead of Asian listing April 20, 2010 CREDIT Suisse, Prudential’s lead adviser on its forthcoming takeover of Asian insurer AIA, has amassed a stake in the British company worth £106m in the past month. The investment bank bought 15.9m shares in Prudential at the start of April, bringing its total holding to just over 18m. The numbers will fuel expectations that Prudential’s [...]