Actelion raises its earnings forecast thanks to cost cuts July 19, 2012 ACTELION raised its earnings outlook for 2012 yesterday as cost cuts helped Europe’s biggest biotech company to post a first-half profit despite its most important drug facing tough competition in the US. Actelion said it now expects core earnings to grow in a mid single-digit percentage range for 2012, compared with previous guidance for no [...]
JP Morgan loses $4bn on trades July 13, 2012 JP Morgan Chase & Co, the biggest US bank, posted $4.4bn of losses from its “London Whale” trades, but also said some of its traders might have tried to conceal bad credit bets in the first quarter. The disclosure was the first indication the bank has made that the problems in its Chief Investment Office [...]
Barratt upbeat as profits rise due to stable housing market July 11, 2012 BARRATT Developments has forecast a big rise in full-year profit, and said yesterday its drive to build new homes on higher-margin land would allow more progress as long as the housing market remained relatively stable. The group said it expected to post a 41 per cent jump in operating profit before exceptional items to around [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 10, 2012 Argonaut Capital Partners The fund management firm has appointed John Lester as partner and head of distribution. He joins from Neptune Investment Management, where he was head of strategic partnerships. Lester was previously associate director at HSBC Asset Management. HSBC Patrick Boucher has been appointed global head of product management, equity research at the banking [...]
FTSE steadies after Alcoa results July 10, 2012 The FTSE 100 was flat today with aluminium giant Alcoa reporting positive results to start the US earnings season which helped steady investors’ nerves. Alcoa saw its quarterly revenue and profit beat Wall Street’s expectations even though prices for its aluminium are at nearly two-year lows. Meanwhile Eurozone finance ministers have agreed to lend Spain [...]
It isn’t just Diamond that missed Libor’s warning signs July 4, 2012 MICHAEL Fallon of the Treasury select committee voiced a question yesterday that must be on many people’s lips. After passing on Paul Tucker’s message from the Bank of England in October 2008, how did Bob Diamond manage to know so little for so long about the Libor manipulation at Barclays that followed? Diamond dodged, “I [...]
Analysts argue lawsuits from Libor are unlikely to succeed July 4, 2012 LAWSUITS against Barclays linked to Libor-fixing are unlikely to succeed based on yesterday’s evidence to the Treasury select committee, analysts have said. Barclays’ finance boss has told analysts that the bank has “not suffered any deposit flight as a result of recent events” during a conference call. And number crunchers at Espirito Santo Investment Bank [...]
George Entwistle named the fifteenth BBC director general July 4, 2012 THE BBC yesterday appointed an insider as its new director general who will take the helm when Mark Thompson retires from the job later this year. George Entwistle, 49, pipped other front-runners Caroline Thomson, BBC chief operating officer, and Ed Richards, boss of Ofcom, to the post. Head since last year of BBC Vision, where [...]
Eurozone sales improve in May July 4, 2012 Shoppers in the Eurozone spent a little more freely in May, but not enough to make up for big falls in retail trade the month before and sales were down sharply on a yearly basis as households struggle through the bloc’s debt crisis. Sales at shops in the 17 countries sharing the euro rose 0.6 [...]
The Barclays number three who got the wrong idea about Libor July 3, 2012 BARCLAYS’ newly appointed chief operating officer Jerry del Missier followed his chief executive Bob Diamond and resigned from the bank yesterday in the wake of the interest rate-rigging scandal. Barclays said he will leave with immediate effect. He is thought to be the executive mentioned by the FSA as having misunderstood the Bank of England’s [...]