FTSE rises fuelled by miners May 22, 2012 The FTSE 100 picked up again this morning as some of last week’s losses were recouped. Hopes that Eurozone leaders were making progress as they tackled the debt mountain engulfing the bloc helped sentiment. One of the ideas to save struggling economies is to issue eurobonds. But an OECD report warned that the fragile global [...]
London not yet in the race for Facebook type flotations May 21, 2012 WITH financial markets in a state of nervousness, the $104bn Facebook flotation appeared to be a godsend for the few investment banks involved. So far this year, investment banks’ equity advisory teams have had a pretty rotten time. The year all started promisingly enough, with the Italian bank Unicredit managing to get a £6bn rights [...]
BEST of the BROKERS May 16, 2012 GLENCORE UBS has downgraded the commodities giant from “buy” to “neutral” and lowered its target price from 475p to 400p following Glencore’s first quarter trading update. The bank said it still sees Glencore as the most dynamic company in EU mining over the next three years, but is concerned about the operational leverage of its [...]
Stocks sink to lowest level of 2012 after liquidity scare weighs on FTSE May 16, 2012 BRITAIN’s benchmark FTSE 100 index fell to its lowest closing level in more than four months yesterday, as new fears about the Greek banking system killed off a brief afternoon rally on the market. The FTSE 100 fell by 32.37 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 5,405.25 points – above a 5,400 point resistance level [...]
FTSE falls as fear stalks markets May 16, 2012 Commodity stocks took a hammering this morning as investors ran for cover with the prospect of fresh Greek elections adding to the uncertainty stalking markets. The prospect of Greece exiting the Eurozone were mounting as the country struggles to avoid economic meltdown. But in positive UK news official figures showed a drop in the unemployment [...]
Just because it’s not called SG Warburg, don’t write off UBS May 14, 2012 In one’s head, it’s very easy sometimes to write off investment banks’ chances of being successful in advisory work and begin to think they’re not the powerhouses they once used to be, that they don’t have the star names they once did and that they’ve even dropped the names that once meant so much. How [...]
Louis Dreyfus set to tap capital markets as buying spree looms May 14, 2012 LOUIS Dreyfus, one of the world’s largest commodity firms, is set to issue bonds for the first time in its 160-year history. The food trading house aims to raise the cash as it plans a series of acquisitions as part of a $7bn (£4.3bn) spending programme. It intends to raise its investment by 40 per [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 10, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Qatar targets 10 per cent of Xstrata Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund plans to buy at least 10 per cent of Xstrata as part of a long-held strategy to invest in Glencore, suggesting the Gulf state could provide crucial support to the pair’s $90bn merger deal. Several of Xstrata’s shareholders said they would oppose [...]
Output rises at Glencore but no word on Xstrata May 9, 2012 COMMODITIES giant Glencore yesterday said trading was robust in the first quarter, ahead of its first shareholder meeting since going public. The firm said its mining projects were on schedule despite power outages, rain and equipment glitches. The world’s largest diversified commodities trader gave no update on its $35bn (£21.7bn) takeover of miner Xstrata, but [...]
Eurozone fears see FTSE 100 fall to fresh 2012 low May 9, 2012 UK equities slumped to their lowest level this year yesterday and faced further losses amid downbeat corporate reports and concerns about the health of the Eurozone, Britain’s biggest export market. Shares in several big companies – including oil major BP and drug maker GlaxoSmithKline – went ex-dividend, meaning investors buying them from now on will [...]