Barclays plans to issue more bail-in bonds February 24, 2013 BARCLAYS is preparing to issue more contingent convertible bonds – co-cos – in the coming months to shore up its balance sheet and satisfy regulators that it is following their orders around bail-in bonds, it emerged over the weekend. The bank raised £2bn in a groundbreaking co-co issuance before Christmas, seeing strong demand for the [...]
KKR in bumper bonus payout to co-founders February 24, 2013 THE FOUNDERS of private equity giant KKR pocketed a $34m (£22.5m) bonus and $100m share award each last year after a bumper 12 months for the New York-based firm, regulatory filings show. Cousins Henry Kravis and George Roberts – who founded the buyout shop with Jerome Kohlberg in 1976 – received a base salary of [...]
Kuroda touted as new Bank of Japan boss as it hunts growth February 24, 2013 ASIAN Development Bank (ADB) boss Haruhiko Kuroda is the frontrunner to become next Bank of Japan (BoJ) governor, according to three Japanese papers. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to nominate the 68-year-old to replace the recently departed Masaaki Shirakawa, the Kyodo news service and two Japanese papers reported over the weekend. The government promised [...]
Private equity firm Doughty mulls listing cable ties maker February 24, 2013 CABLE ties manufacturer HellermannTyton yesterday emerged as the latest company to be eyeing a float on the London Stock Exchange this year. Doughty Hanson, the private equity firm which acquired HellermannTyton in 2005 for around £300m, has hired Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to work on the listing, Sky News reported yesterday. The news comes [...]
Regulators told to put growth before red tape February 24, 2013 REGULATORS such as the Health & Safety Executive will have to consider whether their actions harm economic growth as part of a “no-nonsense approach” to red tape. Business minister Michael Fallon will tonight flesh out plans to force the fifty non-financial regulators – including large quangos such as the Environment Agency – to consider whether their [...]
Zurich Insurance chief says low interest rates threaten industry February 24, 2013 THE chief executive of Zurich Insurance has told City A.M. that low interest rates threaten the business model used by the entire the insurance industry. Martin Senn, the global boss of one of the world’s biggest insurers, said poor returns on fixed-rate investments such as bonds are damaging the market: “If you told me these [...]
Rolex wins title of consumer superbrand for a second year February 24, 2013 LUXURY watch-maker Rolex has come top of an annual chart of consumer “superbrands” for the second year running, leaving Apple and Microsoft trailing in second and third place, a poll published today shows. The iPad and iPhone-maker jumped 16 places to clinch second place, missing out on the top spot to Rolex. Over 2,900 British [...]
Huawei reveals world’s fastest mobile phone February 24, 2013 SAMSUNG and Huawei yesterday became the first in a slew of electronics companies to showcase their latest technology at this year’s international mobile trade show. Mobile World Congress – the industry’s week-long jamboree that officially kicks off this morning – will see some of the biggest players in the market promoting new wares, as well [...]
New competition from the East February 24, 2013 HAZARD a guess which company is now the world’s third-biggest seller of smartphones, behind the obvious frontrunners Apple and Samsung. You might think of Nokia, BlackBerry or Motorola. But none of these three even appears in the world’s top five smartphone sellers, according to research from Gartner. It is Huawei, a Chinese company best known [...]
Firefox squares up to Google and Apple with new mobile platform February 24, 2013 MOZILLA, the organisation behind the Firefox web browser, has launched its own smartphone operating system, a move that will challenge Google’s Android software. The Firefox mobile operating system, targeted at smartphones that sell for £100 or less, will feature on devices made by Alcatel, LG and ZTE, with apps that run on HTML 5 – [...]
