RBS reports £9m profit August 6, 2010 Royal Bank of Scotland has seen profits of £9m for the first half of 2010. The bank, which is 83 per cent taxpayer-owned, was helped by improving bad debt losses as it moved from a £248m loss in the first quarter to a £257m profit between April and June. it lent £12.7bn to business in [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 8, 2010 LOGICA Logica continues to trade at a material discount to its IT services peers, according to Standard & Poor’s. The analysts believe investors have overreacted to the threat of cuts in the UK public sector, and that the gap will close. S&P has trimmed its sales estimates by three per cent, but reiterates its “buy” [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 8, 2010 LOGICA Logica continues to trade at a material discount to its IT services peers, according to Standard & Poor’s. The analysts believe investors have overreacted to the threat of cuts in the UK public sector, and that the gap will close. S&P has trimmed its sales estimates by three per cent, but reiterates its “buy” [...]
RBS poaches Tapner of UBS to head wealth management August 10, 2010 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has hired Rory Tapner to head its wealth management arm just as flagship private banking arm Coutts faces a regulatory probe into sales of a savings product. Tapner joins from Swiss bank UBS where he was chairman and chief executive of the Asia-Pacific businesses. He is also a former global [...]
Admiral looks at Linea deal as profits rise August 25, 2010 ADMIRAL GROUP could bid for Spanish insurer Linea Directa and is eyeing an expansion into the household market after growing its interim profit by more than a fifth to £127m. Admiral, which specialises in car insurance, said an offer for Linea Directa was a possibility at the right valuation. The Spanish business could be worth [...]
HSBC USA under investigation for its money laundering policies August 4, 2010 AMERICAN authorities are investigating the US division of banking group HSBC over its compliance with anti-money laundering procedures, according to regulatory papers. HSBC USA stated it has received subpoenas and other requests for information as part of the probe in a filing to the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). The bank is the subject [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS September 2, 2010 LANDLORDS LACKING IN CONFIDENCE Confidence among landlords has dipped for the first time in almost two years. The latest National Landlord Association Optimism Index shows a drop from 51 to 47 points between the first and second quarter. The drop is believed to have been caused by falling house prices and cuts to housing benefits, [...]
Santander buys 318 RBS branches August 4, 2010 SPAIN’S Santander has bought more than 300 UK branches from Royal Bank of Scotland for about £1.65bn. Santander, the euro-zone’s biggest bank, said the valuation of the deal could be adjusted when it completes, which is expected to happen in December 2011. The price will be a £350m premium to net asset value, which was [...]
Santander buys 318 RBS branches August 4, 2010 SPAIN’S Santander has bought more than 300 UK branches from Royal Bank of Scotland for about £1.65bn. Santander, the euro-zone’s biggest bank, said the valuation of the deal could be adjusted when it completes, which is expected to happen in December 2011. The price will be a £350m premium to net asset value, which was [...]
PTT plots bid for Carrefour assets August 20, 2010 PTT, Thailand’s biggest energy company, said it plans to bid for French retailer Carrefour’s Thai assets, worth an estimated $600M (£386m), under a plan to diversify its businesses. Carrefour, Europe’s top retailer, wants to sell its Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand units at a potential price of $1BN to focus on core markets where it holds [...]