Dutch have grown as a team, insists veteran Gio June 13, 2010 FORMER Arsenal defender Giovanni van Bronckhorst believes Holland have learned their lesson from their Euro 2008 campaign and are ready to mount a strong World Cup charge. The 35-year-old veteran wins his 100th cap for the Dutch against Denmark in Johannesburg today and says the team have grown from the disappointment of two years ago [...]
Worries about Eastern Europe are overblown June 9, 2010 IN HIS office overlooking the river Danube, the new Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban might well be regretting throwing the fiscal state of his country into the limelight and drawing unwanted attention from the markets. In hindsight, comments from his spokesman outlining the gravity of Hungary’s economic situation and stating that a default on its [...]
RUSSIA BECOMES LARGEST OIL PRODUCER June 9, 2010 RUSSIA overtook Saudi Arabia to become the world’s leading oil producer in 2009, while global oil consumption fell the most since 1982, BP has said. According to the oil giant’s latest Statistical Review of World Energy, Russia increased oil production by 1.5 per cent in 2009, claiming a 12.9 per cent market share.
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 7, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES ROCKHOPPER set for $40m CASh CALL Rockhopper, the first explorer to find oil on the Falkland Islands, is priming a £40m cash call that could be launched this week. The Aim-quoted oil company, one of three small UK wildcat explorers drilling for Falklands oil, has been working with broker Canaccord Adams to sound [...]
Sberbank to beat market expectations June 7, 2010 SBERBANK, Russia’s top lender, said it may revise its conservative full-year forecast at the end of this quarter after beating market estimates with an all-time high profit in the first quarter. The state-run bank so far has estimated it will have a net profit of 100 billion roubles for the whole of 2010. “There will [...]
Glencore eyes sale or IPO of its gold mines June 7, 2010 COMMODITIES trader and miner Glencore is thought to be considering putting its gold mines on the market as gold prices remain robust while other metals prices tumble. One option is understood to be for the Glencore, the world’s biggest commodity trader, to list the assets which mainly consist of the largest gold mine in Kazakhstan, [...]
I confess: I was far too optimistic about debt June 6, 2010 I am feeling a little gloomy. I started this sovereign debt crisis looking on the bright side but now I have been got at. So many of our guests at CNBC are downbeat right now that the downdraft has been hard to dodge. Markets took time out from worrying about government debt at the end [...]
Denton Wilde Sapte joins the rush for transatlantic law firm mergers June 6, 2010 MERGERS and acquisitions are rattling along at quite a pace among transatlantic law firms – unlike at the corporate clients they service, many of which are still finding the M&A game a little hard going at the moment, not least of course Prudential. The latest legal mega-deal repays a closer look. The City’s Denton Wilde [...]
CITY BOSS DRUMMING UP SUPPORT FOR TALENTED POLE-DANCING WIFE June 3, 2010 FANS of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, which has whipped up millions of Britons into a frenzy yet again ahead of this weekend’s final, will be surprised to know that one of the City’s own has a claim to fame via the show. Those who’ve been following the series may remember Alesia Vasmitzel, the scantily-clad blonde [...]
Record period tops forecast for VTB bank June 2, 2010 VTB, Russia’s second biggest lender, returned to the black with a record 15.3bn rouble (£335m) profit for the first three months of 2010 after six quarters of losses. The company beat analysts’ estimate of 10.2bn roubles, but decided not to raise its full-year forecast. Chief financial officer Herbert Moos said: “We do not expect that [...]