M&S and ITV brighten up dull day of trading for FTSE November 18, 2009 THE UK’s main market ticked down slightly yesterday, as an unexpected drop in US housing figures spooked investors and weakness in food retailers and tobacco firms outpaced gains in miners and energy companies. The FTSE100 closed 0.1 per cent lower at 5,342.13 with Cable & Wireless, Unilever, Vodafone and HSBC going ex-dividend. Marks & Spencer [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 24, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES CHIP MAKER MOVES TO QUASH BID SPECULATIONImagination Technologies has reiterated that it expects to remain independent, despite market speculation to the contrary and heavy share buying in the chip designer. Intense buying on the London Stock Exchange saw more than 12m shares change hands and 9.7m sold at 150p a share, amid speculation [...]
Clara Furse to leave the LSE in solid shape May 17, 2009 THE CITY’S most powerful woman, London Stock Exchange (LSE) boss Dame Clara Furse, is expected to issue “solid” full year results for the group as she steps down this Wednesday. The notorious “ice queen” is expected to report sharp declines in trading volumes, with the exchange suffering from the recession. But the declines will be less [...]
Aviva to list in New York October 7, 2009 INSURANCE giant Aviva has announced plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange as it embarks on a drive to raise its profile in the US. The company, the world’s fifth-largest insurer by gross premiums, said it would begin trading on 20 October, just days after it said it would launch a partial initial [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 16, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES NATIONAL EXPRESS IN DEBT TALKSNational Express is in talks with bankers to renegotiate terms on part of its £1.2bn debt amid fears that the bus and rail operator will breach loan conditions in December. The group is expected to pass a key test of whether it is meeting the terms of its debt [...]
Hellman & Friedman raises $9bn for fund October 1, 2009 PRIVATE equity firm Hellman & Friedman (H&F) yesterday said it had raised $8.8bn (£5.5bn) for its latest buyout fund. It also said that co-founder Warren Hellman will step down as chairman and that a new chief executive had been appointed. It had been hoping to raise $10bn to help it focus on large-scale equity-related investments [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 17, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES BARCLAYS RETAIL CHIEF WARNS NEW ENTRANTSThe new head of global retail banking at Barclays has joined the backlash of traditional bankers against the entry into banking of supermarkets and other consumer companies. Antony Jenkins said the new competitors may be under-estimating the difficulties of breaking into the market. APOLLO SETS SIGHTS ON NYSE [...]
SUSTAINABLE BANKING IS WAY FORWARD June 17, 2009 MOORAD CHOUDRYHEAD OF TREASURY, EUROPE ARAB BANK THE financial crash of 2007-2008 was caused by the interaction of several different factors, some of which had been building for years. Since then markets have entered a period of restructuring that reflects the realities of the crash: key to this is an awareness that much of the [...]
Markets in Emerging Asia showing Eastern promise for UK investors September 16, 2009 EMERGING markets will, so the optimistic growth story goes, lead the rest of the world out of recession. They sprang back from the Asian crisis of 2007-8, the dot com crash of 2001 and are now, if quarterly GDP data and stock market indices are anything to go by, doing the same again. Asian tigers [...]
Markets in Emerging Asia showing Eastern promise for UK investors September 16, 2009 EMERGING markets will, so the optimistic growth story goes, lead the rest of the world out of recession. They sprang back from the Asian crisis of 2007-8, the dot com crash of 2001 and are now, if quarterly GDP data and stock market indices are anything to go by, doing the same again. Asian tigers [...]