Home
Investment
News & Views
Company News
news storage
Monday newspaper round-up: BAE, Banks, RSA
Wed, 08 Feb, 2012
INVESTMENT NEWS
Company Search
Search QCK.COM
Investment Home
News & Views
Top Stories
Charting
Company Search
Watchlist
Market Reports
Market Buzz
Company News
Economic News
New Issues
Other News
Monday newspaper round-up: BAE, Banks, RSA
Mon, 16 Aug 2010, 05:43:00
A landmark £30 million deal to settle corruption allegations against <b>BAE Systems</b> has been delayed amid fears that it could be thrown out in court. The plea agreement with the Serious Fraud Office, which brought an end to a six-year investigation into suspected bribery, is unlikely to come before the courts for approval before November, the Times understands. Britain's financial regulator is putting the <b>banking</b> industry in jeopardy by gold-plating bonus rules while rival countries pay them lip service, senior industry figures have warned, according to the Telegraph. Leading bankers are claiming to be so hamstrung by bonus restrictions that they are threatening to relocate overseas. Anger about the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) strict implementation of the G20 code on pay follows the Treasury's decision to impose a bank tax unilaterally. <b>RSA Group</b> has lined up three heavyweight banks for a £5bn rights issue to pay for a multibillion-pound bid to buy Aviva's general insurance assets. Deutsche Bank, HSBC and BNP Paribas have each started work on the cash call for RSA, whose initial £5 billion proposal to Aviva at the end of July was rejected as undervaluing the business, the Times reports. The engines of <b>Japan</b>'s recovery sputtered to a near standstill in the second quarter of 2010, with growth falling far short of market estimates as exports and consumption fade. Between April and June, real gross domestic product rose just 0.1 per cent from the previous three month period - the slowest pace of expansion in three quarters and lower than the most bearish economists' forecasts, says the Times. Two of the "NatWest Three" bankers convicted in the US of stealing $7.3m (£4.7m) from <b>Royal Bank of Scotland</b> claim to have been pressured into making guilty pleas, says the Telegraph. Released from prison in Britain earlier this year having served half of their 37-month prison sentence for a scam dreamed up with corrupt Enron executives, David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew have attacked the American justice system and the controversial extradition treaty used to deport them to the US in July 2006. <b>China</b> is on a collision course with Washington after steering its currency sharply lower to protect its export industries, despite a near record trade surplus of $29bn (£19bn) in July, says the Telegraph. The yuan dropped at the fastest pace in almost two years last week and is now 1.8pc lower against a basket of currencies than in June, when Beijing announced the end to its fixed peg against the dollar. <b>House prices</b> have fallen for the second month running, Britain's leading property website said today, and the decline appears to be accelerating, the Independent reports. Rightmove, the online property portal which lists 200,000 properties, said the average asking price has fallen 1.7 per cent over the past month, following a 0.6 per cent decline over the month to the middle of July. <b>Retailers</b> in in central London enjoyed bumper trade in July, driven by Middle Eastern shoppers splashing the cash ahead of an earlier Ramadan this year, says the Independent. Like-for-like sales on non-food products surged by 9.6 per cent last month, according to retail trackers at Springboard. However, the view of a two-tier retail economy was reinforced by lacklustre sales growth of just 0.5 per cent across the rest of the UK in July, found the British Retail Consortium. <b>Budweiser, Coca-Cola and McDonald's</b> have lauded their sponsorships of the Fifa World Cup this summer, claiming the costly investment proved a resounding success, says the FT. AB InBev, maker of Budweiser beer, and the other two multinationals - who are each believed to be paying Fifa $25m per year for the exclusive sponsorship rights - all said in recent second-quarter earnings calls that their World Cup sponsorships had boosted sales. An <b>Apple</b> supply manager has been accused of giving confidential information to Asian suppliers in exchange for kickbacks during a three-year scheme detailed in court filings made available over the weekend, the FT reports. Paul Devine, who procured components for iPod and iPhone headsets, was indicted by US federal authorities for wire fraud and money laundering in a document unsealed on Friday. Union leaders have attacked the private equity bosses behind the <b>AA</b> and <b>Saga</b> after annual accounts revealed that the highly indebted businesses recorded a combined loss of £529m while at the same time squeezing workers' salaries and pension benefits, the Guardian reports. Although the businesses made an operating profit, it was wiped out by interest payments of £705m on debt - much of which was piled on to the group's books when it was refinanced by a trio of private equity firms three years ago.
©2004-2009 QCK.com
