Retailers race to refinance £7bn of debt April 15, 2012 RETAILERS will struggle to refinance debts of as much as $11.2bn (£7bn) due for maturity at the end of this year, leaving some firms at the mercy of their lenders and putting others in danger of insolvency, an industry report has warned. Some 46 UK based retailers hold bank debt totalling $50bn due for maturity [...]
RAPID responses April 15, 2012 Unbreakable bonds [Re: We need an open contest to decide who will run the Bank, Thursday] Allister Heath argues that the £300bn plus held by the Bank of England in government bonds should be cancelled to reduce the government’s debt and interest bill. Cancelling the bonds would undermine the credibility and independence of the Bank [...]
Euro crisis back with a vengeance April 10, 2012 FEARS over the future of the Eurozone reignited yesterday, sparking a collapse in stock markets and a sharp upturn in borrowing costs for struggling Mediterranean states. Yields on Spanish and Italian government bonds soared throughout the day, reversing the recent calming downward trend that had been temporarily achieved with a €1 trillion (£824bn) refinancing operation [...]
London leads UK recovery, but large retailers drag on growth April 9, 2012 THE ECONOMY is growing once more – and London led the recovery in the first quarter, influential survey data showed yesterday. However, other indicators pointed to weakness in some parts of the UK, with increasing numbers of retailers entering administration in the first three months of the year. Every English region except the north east [...]
Petroplus gets first offers for German plant April 2, 2012 SEVERAL interested parties have submitted offers for insolvent refiner Petroplus’ Ingolstadt plant in Germany, a spokesman for the refinery’s administrator said yesterday. “We’ve received non-binding offers and are now organising plant visits,” said the spokesman for administrator Jaffe Rechtsanwaelte Insolvenzverwalter. “We hope to be able to conclude negotiations in the second quarter,” he added. The [...]
Number of British insolvencies edged up over last year March 25, 2012 INSOLVENCIES have crept up over the past 12 months, according to data released by Experian this morning. The rate of insolvencies among British companies rose to 0.1 per cent last month, compared to 0.08 per cent in February 2012. Among medium to large-sized firms – categorised as those with between 101 and 500 employees – [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 18, 2012 Carey Olsen The leading legal services provider, with offices in London and the Channel Islands, has announced that Elaine Gray is joining its Guernsey litigation and dispute resolution group. Gray is the second senior level appointment to the department in less than a year, following the arrival of contentious trust specialist Michael McAuley in July [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 15, 2012 Shore Capital The independent investment group has appointed Christian Yates as senior adviser within its asset management division. Yates was previously a partner at Hazel Capital, the specialist cleantech investment manager, where he established a renewable energy infrastructure business. Yates has over twenty years in the fund management industry and has held senior positions at [...]
Wall Street finally out of the woods March 14, 2012 WALL STREET’S financial crisis is almost over – or so the Federal Reserve would like us to believe. It rushed out the results of its stress tests of the 19 biggest US banks last night: just four failed – in all cases relatively narrowly – a test which gauged their ability to withstand a financial shock [...]
Game teeters on the brink of insolvency March 12, 2012 GAME shares plunged as much as 78 per cent yesterday to just three quarters of a penny after it was unable to assure investors that the value of its shares could be redeemed or grown. Just weeks after renegotiating its banking covenants, Game said it was “uncertain” whether any of the solutions being discussed with [...]