FTSE up despite Europe summit concerns December 9, 2011 The UK’s top share index has closed higher as investors took the positives from the agreements at the European summit. Talk of potential Chinese investment in Europe and improving economic data in the US also lifted sentiment. While not the emphatic solution to the Eurozone’s two-year old debt crisis some had hoped for, EU countries [...]
FTSE up despite Europe summit concerns December 9, 2011 The UK’s top share index has closed higher as investors took the positives from the agreements at the European summit. Talk of potential Chinese investment in Europe and improving economic data in the US also lifted sentiment. While not the emphatic solution to the Eurozone’s two-year old debt crisis some had hoped for, EU countries [...]
CVC in a £4bn bid for RBS’s insurance arm October 30, 2011 PRIVATE equity house CVC Capital Partners is believed to have made a £4bn bid for the insurance arm of Royal Bank of Scotland. The bank was forced by the EU to begin a sale of RBS Insurance (RBSI), which trades as Direct Line and Churchill, after receiving a taxpayer bailout in 2008. CVC is believed [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 8, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES CAMERON RISKS FURY OVER EXTRA IMF CASH David Cameron has left open the door to Britain giving billions of pounds of new support to the International Monetary Fund – and indirectly to ailing members of the Eurozone – in a move likely to infuriate eurosceptic MPs in his own conservative party. Extra British [...]
Mervyn King says the Jubilee break will hit GDP. Should we have fewer bank holidays? May 16, 2012 YES Eamonn Butler The main trouble with bank holidays is that you spend them sitting in the same traffic jam as everyone else. Why can’t we stagger our holidays and take them when we choose, instead of when politicians deem fit? Legally, UK workers don’t have an automatic right to paid leave on public holidays, [...]
Dexia rescue fears spark stocks slump November 23, 2011 EUROPEAN banking stocks were spooked yesterday over fears the €90bn (£77bn) deal to rescue Franco-Belgian bank Dexia could be about to unravel. Financial stocks fell in Britain, France and Belgium after a report that Paris and Brussels were at loggerheads over short-term funding guarantees designed to allow Dexia’s “bad bank” to come off emergency liquidity [...]
RBS profits up but warns over more pain to come November 4, 2011 Royal Bank of Scotland has posted pre-tax profits of £2bn in the three months to 30 September, compared with a loss of £1.6bn in the same period last year. RBS followed the likes of Barclays and Morgan Stanley in benefiting from a debt accounting gain, which boosted its earnings by £2.3bn and helped offset lower [...]
FTSE sees longest slide in nine years November 24, 2011 THE UK’s blue-chip share index ended lower for the ninth consecutive session yesterday in its worst run since January 2003 after Germany reiterated its opposition to the use of euro bonds or monetary tools to help solve the Eurozone’s debt crisis. Following a meeting with the leaders of France and Italy, German chancellor Angela Merkel [...]
FTSE sees longest slide in nine years November 24, 2011 THE UK’s blue-chip share index ended lower for the ninth consecutive session yesterday in its worst run since January 2003 after Germany reiterated its opposition to the use of euro bonds or monetary tools to help solve the Eurozone’s debt crisis. Following a meeting with the leaders of France and Italy, German chancellor Angela Merkel [...]
Banks trim pay for contractors October 10, 2011 BANKS including Nomura and Royal Bank of Scotland have cut pay rates for IT contractors and other temporary workers by 10 per cent and more as they take an increasingly hard line on costs. In a manoeuvre rarely seen since the height of the financial crisis, Nomura, Japan’s biggest investment bank, cut wages for some [...]