News

Your daily news update straight from the City PM newsroom in London

CBIcalling for global carbon trading plan

December 6, 2009

BUSINESS body the CBI is set to call for a global carbon trading scheme today, as the UN’s climate change talks kick off in Copenhagen. The group will argue the case for a scheme to cap emissions, and to allow firms worldwide to buy permits for carbon – like the EU Emissions Trading Scheme – [...]
Oxfam accuses European politicians of repackaging budgets for climate change

December 6, 2009

ANTI-POVERTY campaign group Oxfam yesterday accused European politicians of planning to “cannibalise” existing development aid budgets and repackage them as part of a deal to fight climate change. Oxfam said it had found evidence that exposed “undercover accounting” in some rich nations’ pledges to help poor nations to tackle the climate threat. But Sweden, holder [...]
WAR ON BANKS AFTER BONUS ROW EXPLODES

December 3, 2009

POLITICIANS rounded on bankers yesterday amid fears a windfall tax on bank profits is on the cards for the pre-budget report next week. The concerns came as a report from the National Audit Office (NAO), released today, revealed for the first time that the government has spent £117bn bailing out the banks. Lord Myners, the [...]
Treasury pays 107m in fees

December 3, 2009

THE Treasury expects to have spent £107m by April 2010 on legal and financial advisers to sort out the banking crisis, a report from the National Audit Office revealed today. The legal firm Slaughter and May tops a table of fees paid for services with a bill of £32.9m, followed by Credit Suisse with £15.4m. [...]
RBSmust sell off its investment bank

December 3, 2009

IT now seems increasingly likely that the government is planning to launch a series of tax raids on the banks at next week’s pre-Budget report (PBR). The exact form they may take remains unclear; but I suspect that it is not only bankers that will be affected but everybody else deemed “rich”. We shall see [...]
Gold hits record highs

December 3, 2009

Gold hit record highs of more than $1,225 an ounce yesterday as it continued to attract investors looking for an alternative to the dollar. The precious metal has risen by more than seven per cent since touching a low of $1,136.80 last Friday on fears of a possible default on debt in Dubai, which spurred [...]
Further financial pain in 2011

December 3, 2009

British households should brace themselves for greater pain in 2011 than 2010, as the brunt of the government's tax rises and spending cuts come into force, economists have warned. Capital Economics has predicted that the worst year of the fiscal squeeze will be in 2011. Most consumers will feel financially worse off as a result [...]
Standard Life backs M&B’s management

December 3, 2009

One of Mitchells & Butlers’ largest institutional shareholders yesterday issued a public statement backing the firm’s management, which is facing a revolt from dissident shareholders. Mitchells & Butlers, led by chief executive Adam Fowle, sent documents to the takeover panel this week alleging that Bahamas-based billionaire Joe Lewis, who controls a 23 per cent stake [...]
Kraft to post its Cadbury bid

December 3, 2009

KRAFT Foods will today post its offer document to Cadbury shareholders, triggering a two-month £9.8bn takeover fight, sources with knowledge of the situation said. The American food giant has until 7 December to publish its offer document, but the sources said it was expected today, and would be at the same cash and shares terms [...]
Property debt hits 30bn

December 3, 2009

THE value of commercial real estate debt in default or in breach of key lending agreements more than doubled to about £30bn in the first six months of the year, according to a study. Banks have also extended or refinanced an extra £16bn in the first-half of the year, the report from De Montfort University [...]