FTSE down as mining shares fall October 12, 2010 Britain’s leading share index edged lower yesterday with weakness in commodity issues countering strength in defensive issues as investors’ risk appetite faded. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 10.81points, or 0.2 per cent, at 5,661.59, having earlier touched its lowest level in a week below the 5,600 level. Miners Xstrata, Kazakhmys, and [...]
Hitting all keys at once hides the tune October 12, 2010 ERIC Morecambe famously played all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. Narrative reporting – the non-financial context provided alongside financial information in a firm’s annual report – is likewise playing all the right notes, but the result is just as incoherent: it is playing all its notes at the same time. [...]
Rights issue on the cards for StanChart October 12, 2010 ALL EYES will be on Standard Chartered today following suggestions that the Asia-focused bank is ready to launch a rights issue to raise up to £7bn so it complies with new capital rules. Standard Chartered had a core tier one capital ratio of nine per cent at the end of June, which is within the [...]
IASB hires new Dutch chair October 12, 2010 SIR DAVID Tweedie, chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is set to retire next year, with Hans Hoogervorst appointed to take over the top post. Tweedie will retire officially at the end of June 2011 after 10 years in the role. During that time, Tweedie established the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which [...]
The defence industry boss who is reshaping his firm for new realities September 28, 2010 FOR Cobham’s chief executive Andy Stevens, life is measured out in five-year plans. The head of the FTSE 100 defence company first joined the business in 2003 as head of its aerospace division and played a key role in the 2005 strategic review that “took a root a branch look at our operations and decided [...]
GOVERNANCE TRAINSPOTTERS GET KNICKERS IN A TWIST OVER FLINT September 27, 2010 IT’S been a tiring week for HSBC, which is currently juggling the handling of a full-scale management game of musical chairs, the fallout from its leaky succession-planning AND a band of disgruntled sticklers for corporate governance among its shareholder base. So it’ll come as a welcome surprise for the bank to learn that a conservative [...]
Management team has its work cut out September 26, 2010 THE coup that cost Michael Geoghegan his job was caused by a dramatic boardroom rift in a bank famed for its conservatism. While this kind of putsch might be expected at one of its rivals, HSBC is a gentlemanly outfit where decorum is all. No-one can deny that the bank has promoted two of its [...]
Hester to join commission’s public debate September 26, 2010 STEPHEN Hester, the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, at the weekend became the first of the UK’s biggest bank bosses to commit to playing a role in the independent banking commission’s upcoming public debates. The debates, five of which will be held before the New Year, are designed to engage the general [...]
Banks threatening to quit UK over new plans September 26, 2010 FOR SOME time now, the City of London has warned of a “tipping point” – a point in time where the benefits of being based in the UK no longer outweigh the tax and regulatory burden. Many commentators have dismissed this warning as an empty threat from an industry looking for a return to the [...]
Dubai to launch $1bn bond sale September 23, 2010 The Kingdom of Dubai will seek to raise about $1bn (£638m) from a bond sale next week, tapping the market for the first time since Dubai World’s $24.9bn debt restructuring. HSBC Holdings, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered have been hired to manage the sale of the five to seven-year bonds, which is likely to be [...]