WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 14, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES RSA CONSIDERING ‘LARGER’ DEALSRSA, the general insurer, is looking at large acquisitions – potentially worth about £600m – that might need to be supported with a rights issue, it has told investors and analysts. The company, which has a strong capital cushion and a stated strategy of pursuing smaller, bolt-on deals, said there [...]
Lloyds gets support for a cash call September 9, 2009 LLOYDS Banking Group executives believe they have secured sufficient appetite from investors for a share placing that would allow the bank to reduce its participation in the government’s costly Asset Protection Scheme (APS), City A.M. can reveal. The bank has been sounding out selected investors over the past few weeks and has received assurances that [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 9, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES BAXTER BEHIND ON ORDERSBaxter, the US pharmaceuticals company, has failed to meet its pledge to rapidly deliver flu vaccine, stalling efforts to reduce the impact of the pandemic. British officials said they had received less Celvapan vaccine than agreed with Baxter, one of two companies with which the Department of Health signed a [...]
BarCap poaches Rothschild’s Marsaglia amid growth drive September 7, 2009 BARCLAYS Capital has taken its plans to become a global investment-banking player up a gear by naming Stefano Marsaglia, the respected Rothschild banker, as chairman of its financial institutions group (FIG). In the latest in a series of high-profile hires Barclays has snapped up the Italian heavyweight, who has spent the last 17 years at [...]
European stocks near 11-month high September 7, 2009 EUROPEAN shares closed higher yesterday, led by UKchocolate giant Cadbury which soared 38 per cent following a £10.2bn bid approach from US company Kraft Foods. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares rose 1.4 per cent to 975.90 points, just 0.3 per cent away from an 11-month closing high. The European benchmark index has [...]
Six myths about the financial crisis September 6, 2009 A comfortable, corporatist consensus is building up about how to deal with the financial crisis. Led by Alistair Darling and his French and German counterparts at the G20 finance ministers’ summit on the weekend, this consensus is essentially that the financial crisis “proves” that global free market capitalism has “failed” and that everything is the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 2, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES OCH-ZIFF SET TO EARN PERFORMANCE FEES AGAINOch-Ziff, one of the largest hedge fund managers in the world, is set to start earning performance fees again across its $21.7bn (£13.3bn) of funds. The flagship Och-Ziff master fund is up 17.6 per cent this year, meaning it has almost completely recovered from losses incurred in [...]
RSA cash call fears trigger share slump September 1, 2009 RSA INSURANCE saw its shares fall by five per cent yesterday after it refused to quell fears that it is considering asking markets for $1bn (£619m) in a cash call. Shares in the group slumped 4.75 per cent to a close of 124p as the size of the potential rights issue shocked investors. The stock [...]
Business insurance take up poor August 20, 2009 The government yesterday cut the price of its £5bn credit insurance guarantee scheme to help protect suppliers from the collapse of their customers after the programme has so far provided only £7m of assistance to 52 companies. The government also said it is prepared to double the amount it underwrites in the third revision since [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 19, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES INVESTCORP REPORTS FIRST LOSSInvestcorp reported its first annual loss in its history after the London and Bahrain-listed investment group suffered big falls on its hedge fund investments and heavy writedowns at its private equity and real estate arms. The company, which made its name investing in retailers Gucci, Tiffany and Saks Fifth Avenue, [...]