News

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

Swiss Re falls into red as volatile markets damage bond portfolio

August 5, 2009

ZURICH reinsurance giant Swiss Re posted a shock second-quarter net loss yesterday following heavy losses on its bond investments, and warned the difficult market conditions will continue to hurt. The firm said it made a net loss of Sfr381m (£212m), compared with a profit of Sfr564m for the same period a year earlier. The loss [...]
O2 fears loss of iPhone exclusivity

August 5, 2009

O2 is bracing itself for losing a monopoly to sell Apple’s iPhone in the UK. O2’s exclusivity deal with Apple could end on 9 October due to a two year break clause in its contract. T–Mobile and Orange are both believed to be waiting for a slice of Apple’s lucrative business.
TURBULENCE AHEAD

August 5, 2009

HONG KONG’S leading airline Cathay Pacific Airways posted first-half pre-tax profits of HK$1.18bn (£89.7m) yesterday, up from a loss of HK$660m in the same period last year, helped out by gains in fuel hedging. The airline said it had enough cash to buy aircraft, but warned of a difficult market ahead.
Correction: John Connolly

August 5, 2009

We stated yesterday that Deloitte senior partner and chief executive of the UK office and chairman of its global management committee John Connolly was the chief auditor to RBS. This is not the case.
Jamie Oliver cooks up a storm

August 5, 2009

Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef yesterday revealed one of his subsidiary companies made £6.8m pre-tax profits last year, an 82 per cent jump on the year before. The sale of TV shows overseas and book sales meant turnover increased by 18 per cent. Oliver and his wife Jools awarded themselves a dividend payout of £800,000 for [...]
Axa warns on pensions, cuts jobs

August 5, 2009

Europe’s second-biggest insurer Axa warned future pensioners that UK retirement incomes from annuities have been too generous in the past and will be cut from current levels once new European rules for insurers are brought in. It added that it will cut a further 350 jobs in the UK, after it unveiled a 39 per [...]
Deadline for NatEx bid issued

August 5, 2009

The Takeover Panel last night issued a five-week deadline to Stagecoach and a Spanish-led consortium to make an approach for troubled rail and bus group National Express.
Lloyds makes loss but sees a ray of light

August 5, 2009

LLOYDS Banking Group sank to a £4bn pre-tax loss in the first half, due to writedowns on the property loan portfolio it inherited from HBOS, but said that it believed impairments had reached their peak and would decline rapidly. The bank saw impairment rise from £2.5bn in the first half of 2008 to £13.4bn, 80 [...]
SocGen sees profits slide as bad debts mount, but investment banking thrives

August 5, 2009

SOCIETE Générale (SocGen) suffered a 52 per cent decline in net profit, the French bank said yesterday, as losses on bad loans mounted and it wrote down its derivatives holdings. France’s second largest bank, posted profits of €309m (£269m) for the quarter, down from €644m in the same period of last year, despite revenue rising [...]
Rising loan losses plunge Allied Irish into the red

August 5, 2009

ALLIED Irish Bank swung to a pre-tax loss in the first half of the year, as it made a provision of €2.37bn (£2bn) for potential loan losses. The bank lost €872m in the first half, compared to a €1.28bn profit earned in the first half of 2008. The bad debt charge of €2.37bn represented 3.6 [...]