Range of large cap firms set to give markets an overview October 18, 2009 THERE is a mixed bag of companies reporting this week, but the diverse selection will give investors plenty to digest. FTSE 100 software company Autonomy will post its third quarter results tomorrow, though its management have already signalled that it will be another strong performance. It said earlier this month that it expects to report [...]
Range of large cap firms set to give markets an overview October 18, 2009 THERE is a mixed bag of companies reporting this week, but the diverse selection will give investors plenty to digest. FTSE 100 software company Autonomy will post its third quarter results tomorrow, though its management have already signalled that it will be another strong performance. It said earlier this month that it expects to report [...]
Lloyds plans a 12.5bn share issue October 7, 2009 LLOYDS Banking Group will turn to traditional investors rather than a sovereign wealth fund to help it raise up to £25bn to exit the government’s Asset Protection Scheme (APS), City A.M. can reveal. Sources familiar with the bank’s plans said last night that it had submitted a proposal to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) that [...]
Heidelberg to issue bond to cut bank debt October 12, 2009 HeidelbergCement plans to issue more than €1bn (£937m) in bonds, tapping the resurging junk-bond market to reduce its reliance on banks. The world’s fourth-largest cement maker will issue a five-year bond and a seven-year bond, each worth more than €500m, to repay parts of syndicated bank loans, the company said yesterday. While the move was [...]
Sale of bond boosts ITV October 13, 2009 TROUBLED broadcaster ITV yesterday completed a £135m convertible bond offer, designed to bolster its balance sheet, and announced plans to plug a gaping hole in its pension fund. The Coronation Street broadcaster, which is struggling to appoint a chairman and chief executive, said it plans to use the proceeds to extend its average debt maturity [...]
FEES ROW HOLDS UP LLOYDS MOVE October 13, 2009 LLOYDS Banking Group’s chief executive Eric Daniels and the Treasury were last night embroiled in an increasingly bitter dispute over the bank’s bid to escape participation in chancellor Alistair Darling’s Asset Protection Scheme (APS). The government wants Lloyds to pay a break fee of £2bn to extricate itself, which the bank thinks is far too [...]
Tullow hits oil at Sierra Leone well September 16, 2009 A CONSORTIUM of oil companies including UK-listed Tullow Oil said yesterday they discovered a deepwater oil well off the coast of Sierra Leone. Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum, which leads the group, said its Venus B well has an “active petroleum system”, and said the find raised hopes for more than 30 other prospects the companies have [...]
RBS closes the door on new credit cards October 5, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) has closed its credit card business to new customers in a bid to prevent a rise in bad debts. The lender, which is 70 per cent owned by the taxpayer, will limit new credit cards to existing banking customers, meaning that anyone who wants an RBS or NatWest credit card [...]
RBS closes the door on new credit cards October 5, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) has closed its credit card business to new customers in a bid to prevent a rise in bad debts. The lender, which is 70 per cent owned by the taxpayer, will limit new credit cards to existing banking customers, meaning that anyone who wants an RBS or NatWest credit card [...]
RBS IN SHARE ISSUE PLAN TO RAISE 4BN September 20, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Scotland is considering a share issue of £3bn-£4bn to reduce the government’s stake in the bank. The move would be a last-ditch bid to avoid seeing the government’s stake rise above 70 per cent following participation in the Asset Protection Scheme (APS). It would also see RBS joining Lloyds in the scramble [...]