News

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

Koenigsegg pulls out of Saab deal

November 24, 2009

TINY Swedish luxury carmaker Koenigsegg yesterday pulled out of talks with General Motors (GM) over its purchase of the US car giant’s loss-making Saab unit, putting its future in doubt. Koenigsegg said it had “come to the painful and difficult conclusion” that it could not push on with the acquisition, while GM said it was [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS

November 24, 2009

BLACKS LEISURE Seymour Pierce yesterday upgraded to “Outperform” from “Sell” its rating on Blacks Leisure. It said the approval of a Company Voluntary Arrangement eighteen months into turnaround plans at the company was the catalyst for the upgrade. The terms return financial stability to the store’s portfolio, Seymour Pierce said, leaving it in substantially better [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS

November 24, 2009

Clifford Chance The law firm has elected Andrew Forryan as the new London leader for its capital markets practice, for a period of four years.Forryan, who takes over from David Bickerton, recently elected as the firm’s regional managing partner in the UK and Middle East, has been a partner at Clifford Chance since 1997. He [...]
LLOYDS LAUNCHES ITS RECORD RIGHTS ISSUE

November 24, 2009

LLOYDS Banking Group yesterday launched the biggest cash call the City has ever seen with its long-awaited £13.5bn rights issue, offering new shares to investors at a deep discount of almost 60 per cent. The rights issue has been priced at 37p, a discount of 59.5 per cent to Monday’s close of 91.47p. Under the [...]
HSBC: OVER-REGULATION MAY CAUSE NEW CRUNCH

November 24, 2009

HSBC chairman Stephen Green yesterday warned over-regulation of the City threatens to destabilise the financial services sector and send the economy spiralling back into recession. Speaking at the Hermes and Canada asset management conference, Green said: “The impact of various measures currently under discussion for the enhancement of capital ratios, at the wrong [...]
It is time for Asian economies to grow up

November 24, 2009

MORE than ever, I’m convinced that a combination of the West’s ultra-loose monetary policies and Asia’s juvenile reaction to the tidal wave of cheap money this has created are fuelling a new bubble. So I was fascinated to read a series of reports yesterday arguing a very similar point. They are from HSBC’s global research [...]
Bank gave secret 62bn loan to HBOS and RBS

November 24, 2009

THE Bank of England has revealed for the first time that it lent Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HBOS £61.6bn in a bid to save the financial system from collapse. Governor Mervyn King yesterday admitted a secret deal had been done last November as the lenders struggled for survival. But the undercover nature of [...]
China’s banks to raise funds

November 24, 2009

CHINA’S largest listed 11 banks are seeking to raise tens of billions of dollars in extra capital in order to satisfy regulators. The banks have expanded levels of lending to record levels and must now find at least Rmb300bn (£26bn) ($43bn) in new capital. The banking regulator has warned that it will refuse approvals for [...]
Lehman administrator set to give creditors $11bn in assets

November 24, 2009

LEHMAN Brothers’ administrator has issued a proposal to return $11bn (£6.6bn) in assets to creditors. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) – administrator for Lehman Brothers International Europe – made the move after an earlier plan was rejected by a London court. The assets would be returned to creditors in the company’s international arm rather than its US operation, [...]
BBC: No Worldwide float

November 24, 2009

THE BBC last night moved to deny claims that it was planning to sell off its controversial commercial arm BBC Worldwide. Worldwide is under the spotlight amid accusations that it is using its financial clout to give it an unfair advantage over rivals. And the BBC’s own Trust ordered it to be reined in, in [...]