RSA in $11m settlement November 3, 2005 Insurer Royal & SunAlliance (RSA) has moved to extricate itself from legal action over the Student Finance Corporation (SFC) by agreeing to pay $11m (£6.19m) to Wilmington Trust. The company revealed the latest payment yesterday as shares in the insurer spiked. City traders said that French rival Axa could be lining up a bid, although [...]
No more US deals for RBS November 3, 2005 Sir Fred Goodwin has reiterated Royal Bank of Scotland’s stance on acquisitions in America, saying there are no plans for further deals following last year’s purchase of Charter One Financial. In an interview with news agency Bloomberg in New York, the Edinburgh bank’s chief executive said: “Organic growth is our number one priority (in America).” [...]
Boomtime for Credit Suisse November 3, 2005 Credit Suisse became the latest big bank to report soaring profits on the back of stronger financial markets. The Swiss bank reported a 42 per cent rise in third quarter profits to Sfr1.92bn (£846m) thanks to growth across its investment banking, private banking and asset management divisions. Oswald Grübel, chief executive, called the results “satisfactory”. [...]
Deutsche Telekom to axe 32,000 jobs November 3, 2005 Deutsche Telekom is axing 32,000 jobs in a radical restructuring as the German phone group ruled out making a counter-bid for O2, leaving Telefonica with a clear run at the British mobile phone firm. The job losses, which amount to 12 per cent of the workforce, include 7,000 employees being outsourced. The remaining 25,000 will [...]
Blunkett quits after new allegations November 3, 2005 David Blunkett resigned yesterday as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, following intense criticism of his ill-judged directorship of a DNA company as yet more allegations of financial impropriety emerged. In a statement Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said: “David Blunkett chose to resign because he had reached the conclusion that the position was [...]
Ryanair gambling on giving away its seats November 3, 2005 Fancy a flutter when you fly? Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary says the no-frills carrier is hoping to sign a partnership with a gaming company to introduce inflight gambling in a move which could mean passengers travel for free on Europe’s largest carrier. O’Leary said his bold plan to introduce an airborne Las Vegas could see [...]
BCCI £1bn case ended ‘month late’ November 3, 2005 Judge tells court of his surprise that the Deloitte action against BoE had been allowed to drag on for so long BCCI’S liquidator Deloitte was instructed by the collapsed bank’s creditor committee to immediately halt its action against the Bank of England on 26 September, but only managed to extricate itself from the £1bn litigation [...]
Debt firm rakes in fees November 2, 2005 Britain’s largest provider of personal debt advice, Debt Free Direct (DFD) has seen its fees top £1m a month for the first time, due to the growing number of people veering towards bankruptcy. The number of people turning to the Lancashire-based company for help in setting up Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) has risen to 266 [...]
Tom Hunter in court November 2, 2005 Newly-knighted Scottish venture capitalist Tom Hunter will be accused of acting in bad faith in the High Court this morning by his former partners in the Gadget Shop, highly-successful UBS trader John Woods and Freeserve founder Peter Wilkinson. Hunter and his sidekick Chris Gorman could end up paying out as much as £150m in damages [...]
Sales slide at Matalan November 2, 2005 Value retailer Matalan yesterday insisted that it was holding market share despite reporting deteriorating trading conditions. Group like-for-like sales tumbled 10.6 per cent in the nine weeks to 29 October. The retailer said clothing like-for-like sales were down 7.6 per cent implying homewares sales had fallen by as much as 20 per cent. Chief executive [...]