News

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

Trading lifts US banks to post a profit

October 21, 2009

MORGAN Stanley yesterday smashed Wall Street expectations to report $757m (£456m) in net profit, with its riskier trading operations stealing the thunder from its growing brokerage. Strong fixed income sales and trading revenue and improved investment banking underwriting results broke a three-quarter losing streak as Morgan Stanley belatedly joined rivals like Goldman Sachs in returning [...]
Ponzi suspect Freeman surfaces at court hearing

October 21, 2009

TERRY Freeman, the City trader suspected of running a £40m Madoff-style Ponzi fraud, was forced to come out of hiding to attend a bail hearing yesterday. Freeman, 61, was remanded on conditional bail to appear at Canada Magistrate’s court again on 28 October. The former foreign exchange trader was arrested at his house [...]
BoA sells First Republic Bank to private equity

October 21, 2009

BANK of America said yesterday it has agreed to sell First Republic Bank (FRB), the private bank and wealth manager, to a private-equity group in a deal expected to be worth over $1bn (£602m). A consortium including General Atlantic and Colony Capital are set to take over the unit, which was originally bought by Merrill [...]
Cadbury gets upper hand in Kraft battle

October 21, 2009

CONFECTIONARY giant Cadbury yesterday released a stellar set of third quarter results as it desperately tries to fend off a hostile takeover approach from America’s Kraft. Cadbury said its revenues grew by seven per cent in constant currency terms, beating expectations and putting pressure on Kraft to come up with a bigger offer to get [...]
HOW WILL THESE RESULTS AFFECT KRAFT’S PLANS TO BUY CADBURY?

October 21, 2009

MARTIN DEBOO INVESTECCadbury have come out fighting. But, for us, the quality of the third-quarter and first-half growth is not premier cru. However, we think this will be enough to cause Kraft et al to think hard about a fair exit valuation. GRAHAM JONES PANMURE GORDONWe think this statement, plus confidence expressed about 2010 and [...]
WINDOWS 7 SCORES A GOAL WITH ANALYSTS

October 21, 2009

MICROSOFT’S long-awaited new operating system (OS) launched last night, as the software giant hoped to fend off competition from Google and mend a reputation damaged by the failures of Windows Vista. Analysts welcomed the arrival of Windows 7, which Microsoft executive Ashley Highfield dubbed “the pivotal turning point” for the firm. Julie Larson-Green, Microsoft vice-president [...]
Hargreaves’ asset values soar

October 20, 2009

Stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown said yesterday that it saw a 22 per cent increase in asset values in its first quarter, as the stock market rally encouraged investors. The firm said that total assets under administration stood at £14.5bn at 30 September, compared to £11.9bn at the end of June, while quarterly operating revenue rose 13 [...]
Autonomy shares drop amid margin concerns

October 20, 2009

Shares in Autonomy dropped yesterday after the software firm said that the costs of meeting demand for its new database search product had hit its gross margin in the third quarter. Autonomy – which makes software that searches e-mail, telephone calls and documents for government departments – posted revenue of $191.6m (£116.4m) for the three [...]
Pearson says its full-year earnings rose

October 20, 2009

PUBLISHING group Pearson raised its full-year guidance yesterday, saying it now expects adjusted earnings to be at or above 60p per share (EPS) following a strong performance from its education business. Pearson, the world’s largest education publisher and the owner of the Financial Times and Penguin Books, said nine-month sales were up two per cent [...]
Xstrata increases estimates of minerals at its Tampakan copper and gold mine

October 20, 2009

XSTRATA, the mining group, has boosted an estimate of mineral resources at its $5.2bn (£2.8bn) Tampakan copper-gold project in the southern Philippines to 2.4bn tonnes from 2.2bn, it said yesterday. The mine, considered Southeast Asia’s largest undeveloped copper-gold prospect, is now estimated to contain 13.5m tonnes of copper and 15.8m ounces of gold, at a [...]