ANZ favourite in race for RBS Asia operations May 27, 2009 AUSTRALIA and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) moved into pole position to clinch a deal for Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) Asian assets after rival bidders HSBC and Standard Chartered failed to come up with firm bids. ANZ said it had submitted a non-binding bid for the assets and is raising up to A$2.85bn (£1.38bn) [...]
Treasury in payout threat May 26, 2009 PUBLIC finances could take a further hit, it emerged last night, if multinationals succeed in securing several billion pounds in tax refunds from the Treasury. The European Court of Justice is set to soon rule on whether Britain’s “stamp duty reserve tax” (SDRT) regime flouts European Union law. The challenge under EU law of the [...]
US consumer confidence boosts late London trading May 26, 2009 BETTER than expected consumer confidence data out of the US gave the FTSE 100 a much-needed boost yesterday afternoon, after Asia’s sell-off – driven by concerns of heightening geopolictical tension on the Korean peninsula – infected the London markets in early trading. “Following the release of the US consumer confidence data there was an immediate [...]
Week of gains set back by S&P UK outlook downgrade May 21, 2009 A CUT in the UK’s ratings outlook from agency Standard & Poor’s weighed on the FTSE 100 yesterday, with weakness in heavyweight oils, miners and banks contributing to a 2.8 per cent slide by close of play. The index ended 122.94 points lower at 4,345.47, its biggest daily fall since 27 March, having closed 13.84 [...]
ADVISERS May 20, 2009 LEADING the heavyweight team of advisers on the issue is property expert Alex Midgen of Rothschild, Shaftesbury’s main financial adviser. Rothschild has been advising the group for the past year, it said yesterday. Joint bookrunners are the well known pairing, JP Morgan Cazenove and Merrill Lynch. JP Morgan, which is corporate broker to 37 of [...]
ADVISERS May 20, 2009 LEADING the heavyweight team of advisers on the issue is property expert Alex Midgen of Rothschild, Shaftesbury’s main financial adviser. Rothschild has been advising the group for the past year, it said yesterday. Joint bookrunners are the well known pairing, JP Morgan Cazenove and Merrill Lynch. JP Morgan, which is corporate broker to 37 of [...]
Financials prove that what goes up must come down May 20, 2009 THE FTSE 100 closed 0.3 per cent lower yesterday, with shaky financial stocks offsetting strength in heavyweight oils and miners. The index ended the session down 13.84 points at 4,468.41, up 0.8 per cent on the year, having gained nearly 30 per cent since a six-year low hit on 9 March. “We are still in [...]
No sign of vertigo as banks take the FTSE 100 higher May 19, 2009 THE FTSE 100 continued its upward momentum yesterday, propelled up by financials and miners, although gains were limited by figures that showed new US housing starts fell to record lows. The index closed 0.8 per cent, or 35.80 points, higher at 4,482.25, with investors showing no sign of vertigo from the recent hefty rises. “Despite [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 18, 2009 Collins Stewart The financial services group has appointed Mark Wilson to its equity research team as an analyst covering the pan-European capital goods sector. Wilson has covered both mechanical and electrical stocks for a number of years, from large cap through to mid cap companies. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and, for [...]
EUROPEAN REPORT May 18, 2009 EUROPEAN equities closed higher yesterday as financial stocks climbed on hopes a recession in top global economies was abating, while energy shares tracked higher crude oil prices. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed 2.4 per cent higher at 859.88 points after falling as low as 827.32. The index, which slumped 45 per [...]