FORTIS POISED TO TAKE OVER TESCO INSURANCE OFFERINGS
Fortis Insurance is understood to closing in on a deal to provide motor and household products for Tesco’s financial services arm. The insurer is thought to be in advanced talks with Tesco, which admitted it was reviewing some of its general insurance arrangements. The news would be a further blow to Royal Bank of Scotland, which currently provides the products for Tesco.
WOOLWORTHS GIVEN NEW LIFE
Shop Direct Group is today giving Woolworths a new lease of life in an online form. Chief executive, Mark Newton-Jones acquired the brand name twenty weeks ago after the highstreet retailer collapsed and has since launched woolworths.co.uk. Pick’n’Mix and twenty different types of piñata are a few of the products that will be sold on the website.
CHIP MAKER MOVES TO QUASH BID SPECULATION
Imagination 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 that troubled Saudi investment group Saad could be selling its 29m share stake to Apple.
TOTAL GETS GO-AHEAD TO EXPAND IN RUSSIA
Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, yesterday gave the green light to Total to expand in Russia after the French oil major clinched an exploration joint venture deal with Novatek, the country’s largest independent gas producer, to develop the Termokarstovoye gas field.
BIDDERS LINE UP FOR SALE OF REDSTONE’S UK CINEMAS
Israel Theaters, Israel’s largest cinema group, and Empire Cinemas, the UK cinema chain, have reached the second round of bidding for the 21 UK cinemas put up for sale by Sumner Redstone, the US media magnate. Israel Theaters, owned by the Greidinger family, is also the largest owner of cinemas in Poland and a franchisee of Disney films and Sony Pictures in Israel.
BUY-OUT GROUPS CIRCLE ALMATIS
Private equity companies are circling Almatis, the German aluminium business, as part of negotiations over a $1.1bn debt restructuring, in the latest sign of trouble for its sovereign wealth fund owner Dubai International Capital. The Frankfurt-based producer of speciality alumina products, spun out from Alcoa in 2004, has annual sales of about $500m and was bought for about $1.2bn by DIC in November 2007.
FED ACCUSED OF 'COVER-UP' IN BOA DEAL
Lawmakers claim to have uncovered evidence that the Federal Reserve tried to hide from other financial regulators its involvement in Bank of America’s (BoA) takeover of Merrill Lynch. Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, is due to appear at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee tomorrow.
PLANS TO BEAT ONLINE CRIMINALS WITH 'CYBERCRIME' UNITS
Regional “cybercrime” units are to be set up across the country to try to crack down on sophisticated gangs of online criminals who make billions of pounds every year. Although the strategy has not yet been formally signed off by ministers and senior officers, officials believe that it will be within a week.
CIA TURNS TO WALL ST FOR NEW BREED OF EXPERTS
The US Central Intelligence Agency is on the hunt for disaffected Wall Streeters looking for a career change. Out-of-work investment bankers, analysts and traders are being asked by the American equivalent of Britain’s MI6 to consider a career in espionage over one in finance.
GMAC HALTS WHOLESALE FINANCING FOR SOME DEALERS
GMAC is suspending wholesale financing for certain Chrysler Group dealers it considers to be too risky to lend to, both GMAC and Chrysler confirmed on Wednesday. The move could ultimately push some dealers out of business and hurt Chrysler’s ability to sell cars.
BRITISH AIRWAYS NEARS CONTRACT DEAL WITH LARGEST UNION
British Airways and its largest labour union Unite are near a contract agreement after months of tense talks, but remain at odds over BA’s demand that crisis measures to cut costs become permanent, a top official at Unite said. BA executives are racing to meet a self-imposed deadline to reach agreement on new contracts for staff by the end of the month.
KING WARNING ON UK DEFICIT
BANK of England governor Mervyn King launched a broadside against chancellor Alistair Darling’s fiscal policy yesterday, urging the government to take drastic action to reduce the UK’s “extraordinary” deficit once the recession begins to ease.The Treasury plans to sell £220bn in gilts this year in a bid to pump money into the economy, but King warned that the government was still facing a “long hard slog” to repair the damage caused by the banking crisis.“The scale of the deficit is truly extraordinary,” he said.
ECB PUMPS IN RECORD €442bn TO BOOST EUROZONE LENDING
THE European Central Bank (ECB) pumped a record €442bn (£375bn) into money markets yesterday for 12 months in an attempt to improve bank lending and drag the Eurozone economy out of recession. A record 1,121 banks scrambled to take up the ECB’s offer of unlimited funds at a fixed rate of one per cent, as they anticipated that they would not see such a cheap offer again.The loan is the central bank’s first ever money market operation with a term as long as one year and represents five per cent of the Eurozone economic output.
INTIMAS GOES OUT OF FASHION
INTIMAS, the ladies’ clothing designer which until earlier this month supplied Ted Baker, saw its Aim-listed shares suspended yesterday after it failed to post its full-year results to December 2008 by the market’s 30 June deadline. Intimas made a pre-tax loss of £1.65m in the six months to the end of June last year and has been forced to put its staff on a four-day week.
TREASURY APPOINTS B&B VALUER
The Treasury has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) valuation expert Peter Clokey as independent valuer for the Bradford & Bingley compensation scheme. Shares in the mortgage lender were transferred into temporary public ownership last September as it neared collapse. Clokey will now lead a PwC team to determine the value of any compensation payable to shareholders of Bradford & Bingley.
BARCLAYS TAKES THE METRO
NEW YORK’S Brooklyn Atlantic Avenuesubway hub is going to be renamed Barclays, after the bank struck a $4m (£2.4m) deal with the city’s transport authority. Barclays’ New York offices are actually in the more glamorous Manhattan, but the Barclays Centre sports arena is being built in Brooklyn as part of a local regeneration project, hence the link to the bank. The sports centre is due to open in 2012.
CITIGROUP UPS SALARIES AS IT CUTS BONUSES
CITIGROUP, the stricken US banking giant, will boost salaries by up to 50 per cent to prevent an exodus of top staff. The move follows high-profile complaints from the US government that bailed out banks and financial services firms are still handing out large bonuses despite their reliance on the taxpayer. There are fears that staff could flee Citi, led by chief executive Vikram Pandit, if bonuses dry up. The rises will apply across the bank, including in London, where Citi has an investment and commercial banking operation.
POLAR CAPITAL GETS SHARE FILLIP
Shares in Polar Capital gained 2.7 per cent yesterday after the hedge fund firm posted full-year results showing adjusted diluted earnings per share down 32 per cent to 9.9p, ahead of analysts’ expectations. Assets under management fell 52 per cent to $1.5bn (£913m) but all six of its funds have posted positive returns in the year to the end of May.
COMET OWNER KESA PLUNGES INTO THE RED
KESA Electrical, the owner of Comet, yesterday said it had plunged to a £81.8m full-year loss due to a slump in demand for electrical goods. The group, which owns a number of European electrical retailers including Darty in Frnace, boasted a pre-tax profit of £128.8m a year ago. The losses were largely due to a write down of £118.5m in the value of its Spanish business Menaje del Hogars, as well as the price of cost cutting.
KKR SHELVES US LISTING FOR NOW
PRIVATE equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) said yesterday it plans to merge into its Amsterdam-listed fund, which will remain listed on the Euronext exchange, as it kept the door open for a proposed listing in New York. KKR’s plans to follow in rival Blackstone’s footsteps and become a publicly traded, NYSE-listed company were originally launched in July 2007, just before the markets started to tumble.
