News

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

Cadbury boss will fight Kraft takeover

September 14, 2009

Dairy Milk maker Cadbury is set to ramp up its defence against Kraft’s £10.2bn takeover bid when chief executive Todd Stitzer addresses investors and analysts at Sanford Bernstein’s London offices tomorrow. Stitzer is also understood to be considering bringing forward the confectionary group’s third quarter results in a bid to reassure investors of the company’s [...]
Saudi wealth lures Barclays

September 14, 2009

BARCLAYS is planning to push into the private banking arena in Saudi Arabia to take advantage of the concentration of high net worth individuals in the region’s largest economy. Soha Nashaat, chief executive of Barclays private banking in the Middle East and North Africa, said Saudi Arabia was “massive in terms of percentage of GDP [...]
Goldshield is in buyout talks

September 14, 2009

GOLDSHIELD, the generic drugs firm, yesterday confirmed it is in advanced talks with AIT, a buyout alliance that includes the firm’s former chief executive, over a possible takeover. AIT, formed of pharma firm Neopharm and Goldshield’s ex-boss Ajit Patel, said earlier it was carrying out due diligence on the group. Patel left the firm in [...]
BROWN AND TUC CLASH ON CUTS

September 13, 2009

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown will tomorrow pave the way for a much tougher stance on public spending in a key speech to trade unionists. He will warn increasingly angry trade unionists to support him or face what he claims would be even tougher cuts from the Tories. The speech comes as tension between Labour and [...]
Boom days return for derivatives

September 13, 2009

ACTIVITY on the international derivatives market rebounded to $426 trillion (£256 trillion) in the second quarter, signalling the return of risk appetite, but remained below pre-crisis levels. According to a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) report published today, total turnover of derivatives rose by 16 per cent, mainly driven by futures and options on short-term [...]
Dick Fuld: I’m sorry after all

September 13, 2009

DICK Fuld, the man who presided over the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers that sent shockwaves around the world, has said sorry to former staff of the firm. A year after the spectacular bank failure, it has emerged that Fuld privately confessed he spent too much time out of the office and not [...]
Paulson was right not to save Lehman

September 13, 2009

SO Dick Fuld, Lehman Brothers’ former boss, has finally said sorry. The banker they nicknamed “the gorilla”, who himself lost much of his fortune in the collapse of his firm, should have apologised a long time ago to his shareholders, bondholders, staff and counterparties. But he hasn’t changed his mind on one thing: in common [...]
BLOW-BY-BLOW: LEHMAN BROTHERS’ COLLAPSE

September 13, 2009

22 August 2007Lehman closes its subprime lender BNC Mortgage as the sector falls into crisis. 17 June 2008Bank posts a $2.8bn loss in just one fiscal quarter. 13 September 2008Barclays and Bank of America end buyout plans as New York Fed boss Tim Geithner holds crisis talks. 15 September 2008In the early hours, Lehman files [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING

September 13, 2009

THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphT-MOBILE OWNER EYES BID FOR SPRINTDeutsche Telekom has called in banking advisers to study a possible multi-billion dollar bid for Sprint Nextel, the third-largest mobile phone operator in the US. The company’s decision to call in Deutsche Bank comes hot on the heels of the agreed tie-up of its struggling T-Mobile UK [...]
Gieve astounded by US inaction

September 13, 2009

The former deputy governor of the Bank of England said he was “astounded” the US government let Lehman Brothers go under, and that the bank’s collapse marked a clear moment when people lost confidence in the markets.Sir John Gieve said in an interview with Sky News yesterday he had fully expected US authorities to step [...]