Reed Elsevier buys Accuity for £343m September 26, 2011 Publisher Reed Elsevier is bolstering its financial data business by buying US-based Accuity for £343m. The firm says it will combine Accuity with its Bankers’ Almanac and LexisNexis Risk Solutions businesses. It has agreed to acquire the online subscription data provider from Bahrain-listed investment manager Investcorp. Mark Kelsey, chief executive of Reed’s business information unit, [...]
UBS shake-up may take three years September 25, 2011 THE SHAKE-UP of the investment bank at UBS will take two to three years to complete, its chairman said yesterday after the resignation of Oswald Gruebel. Kaspar Villiger has asked interim chief executive Sergio Ermotti to quicken a scaling back of the investment bank so details can be revealed at the bank’s investor day on [...]
Canary Wharf plans to build new offices September 22, 2011 THE developer of Canary Wharf aims to double the size of the estate over the next decade on the back of an expected long-term shortage of prime office space. The expansion of the financial centre will help it meet the extra 100,000 passengers created when Crossrail is up and running, said Canary Wharf Group (CWG), [...]
Gregory’s new one is ambitious but under-juiced September 21, 2011 THE LADY OF THE RIVERS BY PHILLIPPA GREGORY Simon & Schuster, £7.99 PHILIPPA Gregory’s success has been built upon portraying women that have remained on history’s periphery – notably Mary, sister of Anne Boleyn in 2002’s The Other Boleyn Girl and Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, in 2009’s The Red Queen. Both have enjoyed [...]
Glasenberg adds to stake in Glencore September 19, 2011 GLENCORE boss Ivan Glasenberg has made another show of confidence in the commodity trader, buying almost £13.5m of shares to add to his holding as part of a plan to use his dividend income to buy more shares. Glasenberg, who announced last week he had bought £10m of shares and would buy more, bought another [...]
Multi-trillion yen boost to rebuild Japan September 18, 2011 TRILLIONS of yen will be raised in tax over the next decade to pay for post-earthquake reconstruction work, the Japanese government’s tax commission has announced. The proposed supplementary budget will bring in ¥11.2 trillion (£92.4bn). Either higher income and corporate taxes, or a combination including higher tobacco taxes, are expected to be used. The tax [...]
Rogue trader loses UBS $2bn September 16, 2011 UBS is expected to plunge bank into the red this quarter after the bank said a single rogue trader had cost it $2bn (£1.26bn). Ratings agency Moody’s has put the bank on review for a potential downgrade, it said late last night, citing “ongoing weaknesses in the group’s risk management and controls”. The trader at [...]
UBS $2bn rogue trader suspect held in London September 15, 2011 Swiss bank UBS said a trader had lost it around $2bn (£1.26bn) in unauthorised deals, and police in London arrested 31-year-old Kweku Adoboli in connection with the case. Adoboli – a director of exchange traded funds and “Delta 1” working in the bank’s London office, according to his profile on networking site LinkedIn – was [...]
Economy not rebalancing fast enough September 14, 2011 IT is not good news on the jobs front. Unemployment jumped by 80,000 over the past three months; employment is up by just 24,000 over the past year. The post-recession jobs rebound has ground to a halt. The economy is rebalancing towards the private sector but no longer quickly enough. Private sector employment peaked at [...]
Troubled JJB pins hopes on incentive plan September 5, 2011 THE City last night took a hopeful view of the £14m incentive plan launched for the bosses of troubled retailer JJB Sports. Shares in the firm, which was rescued by a deal with landlords in March, closed up 2.4 per cent despite a dire day on the rest of the FTSE, after it said senior [...]