WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 21, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES VINCI CHIEF DOWNBEAT ON SECTOREurope’s construction market is likely to fall further next year, despite billions injected by governments in stimulus plans and emerging signs of recovery in the region’s two largest economies, Xavier Huillard, chief executive of Vinci, has warned. In an interview with the FT, Mr Huillard warned of further pain [...]
Bank on Green’s for top-notch nosh September 21, 2009 Green’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar14 Cornhill, London, EC3V 3NDTel: 020 7220 6300FOODSERVICEATMOSPHERECost per person without wine: £35 THERE are precious few dinings rooms in the City with the “cor blimey” factor, so the news that a new restaurant was opening in the old Lloyds Banking Hall set us nodding like the dog on the Churchill [...]
DAREDEVIL CHIEF ROLET BRINGS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR TO FUSTY LSE September 17, 2009 XAVIER Rolet is certainly freshening things up over at the London Stock Exchange. The exchange’s new boss has been busy over the past few weeks, having shaken up the LSE’s marketing team, struck a deal to replace its IT provider and got rid of its trusted PR adviser Finsbury (the super-spinner and its arch-rival Brunswick [...]
Google’s printing deal is revolutionary September 17, 2009 GOOGLE has come in for a lot of flak from publishers, some of it justified. But if you want to understand why it remains an exceptional company, there is no better place to start than with its latest deal. Over the last seven years, Google has scanned 2m out-of-print books from libraries and made them [...]
Levene: stop bashing City September 17, 2009 LLOYD’S of London chairman Lord Levene has launched a fierce defence of the City, after suggestions its size should be curbed following the financial crisis. Speaking at the Lloyd’s City Dinner, Levene last night accused politicians of “pandering to populist outrage” with “knee-jerk reactions”. He said political suggestions the so-called “real economy” is “superior and [...]
POLL: UK FACING INSURER EXODUS September 15, 2009 OVER 60 per cent of top executives at Britain’s insurance firms are feeling tempted to leave the UK because of high taxes, a poll reveals today. The survey of 75 chief executives and finance directors also showed growing pessimism about the competitiveness of the City, with 80 per cent predicting the number of insurers based [...]
Lehman Bros bondholders may be owed up to 44bn September 14, 2009 THE trustee holders of collapsed Lehman Brothers’ senior bonds said the debt holders may be owed as much as $73bn (£44bn), after losing their investments when the bank filed for bankruptcy protection a year ago, according to court documents. Wilmington Trust Company claims that holders of the senior debt of the failed bank are estimated [...]
Large caps break 5,000 as travel gets its day in the sun September 9, 2009 THE FTSE 100 ended a week of waiting yesterday to pull itself above the 5,000 level by the close. The benchmark index rose by 1.2 per cent on the back of strong oil and bank stocks, as well as early gains on Wall Street. By the close the index was 56.96 points higher at 5,004.30, [...]
PR PRO FULD CORNERED AT COUNTRY RETREAT September 8, 2009 SOMEONE has finally cornered former Lehman Brothers chief Dick Fuld, the “gorilla” of Wall Street, at his idyllic country pad in Idaho, just a week before the anniversary of the firm’s collapse. “You don’t have a gun; that’s good,” was Fuld’s opening shot to the Reuters reporter, before adding: “I’ve been pummelled, I’ve been dumped [...]
Regulators agree tough new rules on banks’ capital levels September 7, 2009 A GLOBAL committee of top regulators has agreed on a raft of strict rules that will dictate how much banks have to hoard in capital reserves and how much they can borrow. The Basel Committee has agreed tough new regulations to prevent banks from building up giant levels of debt in a bid to prevent [...]