RBS to sell asset manager arm August 17, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Scotland is preparing to put its asset management business up for sale, including assets that are accessible to clients of Coutts, the private bank that is best known as an advisor to the Queen. A sale of RBS asset management, which creates hedge funds and private equity funds-of-funds using third-party managers, could [...]
UBS tax evasion probe shifts focus to Hong Kong August 17, 2009 THE US government’s probe into tax-evasion by clients of UBS moved to Asia yesterday, after court documents revealed how the Swiss bank helped US nationals avoid taxes using a Hong Kong-based company. Documents filed by Californian UBS client John McCarthy – who last week pleaded guilty to failing to submit an annual report to the [...]
Technical issues hit Dragon Oil August 17, 2009 LONDON-listed Dragon Oil said yesterday it was likely to undershoot its production growth target in 2009 because of technical problems, adding its talks with majority shareholder Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc) about a possible takeover bid were ongoing. The Dubai-based company said gross output growth for the full year will likely be below the annual [...]
LEGO BUILDS SALES August 17, 2009 LEGO, Europe’s biggest toymaker, yesterday said its pre-tax profits for the first half had jumped 60 per cent to 684m Danish knoner (£79.3m), thanks to sales of its Star Wars and Lego City range. Lego said its UK sales rose by 20 per cent during the period, despite a softer toy market, as parents turned [...]
CITY VIEWS: IS IT RIGHT FOR THE FSA TO INTERVENE ON THE SUBJECT OF BANKERS’ COMPENSATION? August 17, 2009 SIMON DUCKLIN TMF GROUP“With the tripartite regulatory structure there will always be a lot of finger-pointing over whose responsibility it is to regulate bankers’ pay. If you get different parties involved, things will fall between the cracks, though this issue should be on somebody’s desk.” ALEXANDRA EKPIKEN WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES“On the one hand the [...]
DARLING THREATENS LAW TO CURB CITY BONUSES August 16, 2009 CITY bankers are on a collision course with politicians over multi-million pound bonuses after chancellor Alistair Darling yesterday pledged to intervene to curb excessive pay and risk-taking in the Square Mile. The Treasury is ready to consider legal action on bonuses if they pose a “systemic risk” to the banking system, which Darling and many [...]
The $100m trader in the sights of pay tsar August 16, 2009 British-born Citigroup trader Andrew Hall is fighting to hold on to a $100m (£61m) payout as the US government’s “pay tsar” prepares to cut Wall Street bonuses. The Obama administration’s head of financial services compensation, Kenneth Feinberg, will this week begin to study the pay of the top 25 earners in US banks. One White [...]
Latest big bank to shut down hits US August 16, 2009 US BANK Colonial BancGroup, which has assets of $25bn (£15.1bn), became the largest American bank to fail so far this year when it was shut down by federal officials on Friday. On the same day, regulators also shut down two institutions in Arizona – one in Las Vegas and one in Pittsburgh – pushing the total [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 16, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphBAE WARNS OF CREDIT THREAT TO SUPPLIERSBAE systems has warned that its supply chain is at risk from suppliers failing to obtain adequate credit. The defence giant is supplied by tens of thousands of smaller manufacturers that are far more vulnerable to the funding squeeze than the company itself. BAE has a [...]
Novartis launches copy-cat case August 16, 2009 Novartis, the Swiss drugs giant, has launched legal action against its larger rival GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), claiming it is infringing one of its patents covering a technique used in the production of a number of its own vaccines. Last year, GSK lawyers attempted to get the Novartis patent revoked, claiming it should never have been granted, [...]