FTSE creeps up as investors await BoE decision July 5, 2012 The FTSE 100 edged up in early trading as investors awaited the Bank of England’s next move on interest rates and quantitative easing to be announced at midday. Investors were also watching the unravelling Libor (the London Interbank Offered Rate) scandal with ratings agency Moody’s today threatening to downgrade Barclays over the damage to its [...]
FTSE edges down as Libor crisis deepens July 4, 2012 The FTSE 100 edged down with trading subdued as the US was closed for business because of a public holiday. Investors remained glued to the crisis in the banking sector with former Barclays chief Bob Diamond, who quit over the bank’s rate fixing scandal, prepared to be grilled by MPs today. Meanwhile Britain’s service sector [...]
KNIGHT VINKE TURNS UP HEAT ON GLENCORE July 3, 2012 Activist fund Knight Vinke, a top-20 shareholder in miner Xstrata, yesterday backed a surprise call from fellow investor Qatar for better terms in a takeover offer from commodities trader Glencore, led by Ivan Glasenberg (pictured).Knight Vinke yesterday said the deal does not represent fair value for Xstrata on current terms and also objected to the [...]
Why rivals are banking on Diamond’s downfall July 2, 2012 Whenever a banking scandal breaks in the City, be it rogue trade allegations at UBS, a massive trading loss at JP Morgan or the current Libor interest rates scandal, the first concern is for the reputation of the industry as a whole. But, investment bankers being possibly the most competitive bunch on the universe, the [...]
Cotton lawsuit hits Louis Dreyfus July 2, 2012 COMMODITY trading giant Louis Dreyfus has been sued by a former senior trader at rival Glencore, who alleges that Dreyfus illegally cornered the cotton market last year as prices tumbled from record highs. The trader, Mark Allen, accused Dreyfus of violating antitrust law by artificially inflating prices of Intercontinental Exchange cotton futures contracts expiring in [...]
FTSE up as UK manufacturing decline slows July 2, 2012 The FTSE 100 edged up this morning as new data showed that the decline in UK manufacturing slowed in June. The manufacturing PMI – a respected survey of the sector – stood at at 48.6, up from 45.9 in May and well ahead of the consensus forecast of 46.5. New orders also rose strongly to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 1, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Esma probes agencies’ views on banks The pan-European markets regulator has launched a probe into the way the big three credit rating agencies evaluate banks to determine if the process is sufficiently rigorous and transparent, its chairman Steven Maijoor told the Financial Times. The European Securities and Markets Authority has begun inspecting Standard [...]
Heritage spends £541m on oil assets in Nigeria July 1, 2012 HERITAGE Oil is spending $850m (£541m) on assets in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, the firm announced yesterday. The firm will buy a 45 per cent in the OML 30 fields from Shell, Total and Eni in a bid to diversify. The firm has endured frustratingly slow progress at its Kurdistan wells, which has weighed [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 28, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Bostock poised to leave M&S Kate Bostock, the head of all of Marks and Spencer’s non-food business, including clothing, is poised to leave the high street retailer. Ms Bostock’s departure could be announced at M&S’s annual meeting on July 10, or possibly sooner. The expected departure of Ms Bostock, who has been with [...]
ADVISERS DEUTCHE BANK June 28, 2012 GLOBAL head NATURAL RESOURCES M&A Nigel Robinson was one of the advisers from Deutsche Bank who advised Veolia. Robinson is no stranger to big deals and is currently also working on the mega merger between commodities giant Glencore and FTSE 100 miner Xstrata. Robinson joined the bank in 2007 as managing director and head of [...]