FTSE up as Greek endgame arrives February 9, 2012 The FTSE 100 crawled up this morning as investors braced themselves for an expected decision on a Greek debt deal and the prospect of the Bank of England pumping in another £50bn into its quantitative easing programme. Greek officials said pension cuts were the sticking point in talks which have lurched from one crisis point [...]
BarCap’s role in £56bn deal is challenged February 8, 2012 BARCLAYS Capital’s last-minute inclusion in the adviser list for the Glencore-Xstrata merger, which has lifted its place in the Thomson Reuters league table for M&A worldwide, has been challenged by one of its rivals. Thomson Reuters, which has lifted BarCap from eighth to sixth following the bank’s declaration that it is an adviser on the [...]
Miners buoy FTSE as Greece remains on knife edge February 8, 2012 The FTSE 100 opened on the front foot this morning as investors continued to cling onto hopes that Greece could be steered away from financial meltdown. Greek party leaders were set to meet again today to hammer out a reform deal in return for the new €130bn rescue from the IMF and EU. Leaders of [...]
BHP profits slip on weaker commodity prices February 8, 2012 BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest miner, reported a rare fall in earnings, hurt by labour battles and weaker commodity prices, but the result showed it was still in a different league from its would-be rival: Glencore-Xstrata. Despite the six per cent drop in half-year profit to $9.94bn (£6.24bn), BHP made more cash profit in six [...]
Glencore faces sweetener call February 7, 2012 Glencore could be forced to boost its offer for Xstrata after two of the miner’s top shareholders said they would refuse to vote in favour of the £56bn merger. The two commodities giants unveiled a deal yesterday that would see Glencore shareholders pay an effective premium of 15.2 per cent on Xstrata’s pre-deal share price [...]
Glencore’s deal with Xstrata faces long road to clearance February 7, 2012 GLENCORE and Xstrata’s $90bn (£57bn) merger faces a long road to reach regulatory and competition clearance. While bigger commodities tie-ins have been cleared in the past – such as the deals that formed Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton – merging a clearing house with a miner could encounter new hurdles, analysts said yesterday after the [...]
ADVISERS ON THE UK’S MEGA-MERGER February 7, 2012 Barclays Capital was a last minute entrant onto the adviser list, City A.M. learned yesterday. The Bob Diamond-led bank, which made it onto the Facebook IPO, declined to comment last night. BarCap’s inclusion came late on Monday night as the final touches were being put to the deal. Inclusion will help it maintain progress in [...]
Results give hint of synergies February 7, 2012 THE MANAGEMENT of Glencore and Xstrata yesterday released results for 2011 and calculated their potential combined firepower as they moved to convince shareholders to back a merger. Xstrata, the smaller of the two firms, generated revenues of $33.9bn (£21bn) for the full year to 31 December. Its net profit before exceptional items was up 12 [...]
Fund managers voice objections early February 7, 2012 THERE was a time when UK institutional shareholders could be relied upon to back mangements in their takeover aspirations, or at least keep quiet about the whole thing until they had had time to digest all the details. But yesterday both Schroders and Standard Life’s David Cumming (near left), accounting for a total of around [...]
FTSE subdued as hopes pinned on a Greek deal February 7, 2012 BRITAIN’S blue-chip index closed flat yesterday after staging a late recovery on talk that Greece was making progress towards securing a bailout deal and avert a messy default. The FTSE 100 gauge ended the session 1.94 points lower at 5,890.26 as gains among banks and oil stocks offset heavy losses in the mining sector, which [...]