End our smoke and mirrors economy March 15, 2010 AMERICANS are great at producing lengthy, blow-by-blow investigations into crises, debacles and disasters. Last week’s 2,200 pager into the Lehman Brothers collapse from US examiner Anton Valukas is a case in point. His revelations about how Lehman was able to downplay the size of its balance sheet are especially riveting. It is clear that the [...]
DIAMONDS ARE AN INVESTOR’S BEST FRIEND March 11, 2010 WE’VE all heard a lot of novel investment advice over the course of the last two bumpy years, but investing in your own diamond mine has got to be a new one. Investment firm Capital Alternatives has set up a new venture, Capital Mining, which plans to do just that, having recently snapped up the [...]
Arbuthnot strikes out at government for damaging prospects at small banks March 11, 2010 ARBUTHNOT Banking Group yesterday hit out at the government for crippling smaller banks with a “one-size-fits-all” approach to punitive regulatory policy. Arbuthnot has avoided the Bank Payroll Tax altogether by not paying any bonuses over £25,000, but it said the new rules – including the bonus tax and changes to capital requirements – could damage [...]
US February deficit hits a record $221bn as it spends to aid recovery March 10, 2010 THE US posted a record $220.91bn (£147bn) budget deficit in February, Treasury Department data revealed yesterday. The February deficit was in line with analysts’ consensus forecast in a Reuters poll for a $222bn budget gap but well above the $193.86bn for the same period a year ago. The department said the budget gap for fiscal [...]
Trinity Mirror upbeat after profits slide March 4, 2010 NEWSPAPER giant Trinity Mirror saw profits slide 41 per cent year-on-year as the advertising drought continued to batter the industry. It posted profits of £72.2m for 2009, above most expectations, but sales fell 14 per cent to £763.3m and operating profit dropped 30 per cent to £101.2m. The beleaguered firm embarked on a series of [...]
Construction activity still contracting March 2, 2010 ACTIVITY in Britain’s struggling construction sector continued to fall in February but the rate of the decline was one of the weakest during the two-year period of contraction, a leading market survey revealed yesterday. The CIPS/Markit purchasing managers’ index posted 48.5 during February, which was only fractionally lower than the previous month’s 48.6. This is [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 25, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES BASF CHIEF DAMPS HOPES OF RAPID ECONOMIC RECOVERY One of Europe’s leading industrialists damped hopes of a quick economic recovery yesterday when he warned of persistent overcapacity and at least two years of flagging growth in developed countries. JЯrgen Hambrecht, chief executive of BASF, the world’s largest chemicals group by revenues, said economic [...]
Blackstone bounds into black with surprise earnings boost February 25, 2010 PRIVATE equity giant Blackstone Group posted better-than-expected earnings yesterday, driven by increased performance fees and improved valuations of its portfolios. Private equity firms suffered in 2008/9 from sliding stock markets, which reduced the values of their investments, and from the limited availability of credit for new deals. But both have improved, with valuations higher and [...]
Outflows dent Henderson’s bottom line February 24, 2010 ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN fund manager Henderson reported a dip in profits for 2009 as outflows countered the effect of recovering markets and positive investment performance. The group, which last year took over struggling rival New Star, said recurring pre-tax profits after amortisation and charges was £63m, versus the £80.3m posted in 2008. Henderson said that at the [...]
EX-BANKER FOLLOWS HIS RUGBY DREAMS February 24, 2010 RUGBY-lovers in the City can be rightly proud that one of their own is putting his money where his mouth is in terms of promoting the game of Rugby Sevens around the world. Sevens – a speedier, shorter version of the traditional game – has recently enjoyed a bit of a boost from the announcement [...]