News

Glencore to float stock worth up to $11bn

Glencore, the world’s largest commodities trading group by revenue intends to sell between $9bn-11bn in shares in its IPO on the Hong Kong and London stock exchanges, the Swiss company announced on Thursday. The group will use in the next three years around $5bn of the profits from the IPO for capital expenditure and around…

JPMorgan Q1 profits up 67%

JPMorgan Chase, the second largest bank by assets in the US, beat forecasts from Wall Street analysts by reporting a 67 percent rise in Q1 profits, bringing figures to $5.56bn compared with $3.33bn in the same period last year. The jump in results was attributed to an increased performance from the credit card group and…

BP Rosneft deal grows uncertain

The Russian half of the Russian-British TNK-BP joint venture is threatening to file a law suit for up to $10m against its parent company BP, saying BP breached its shareholder agreement for going straight to state oil company OAO Rosneft rather than through TNK-BP, sources said. Rosneft and BP signed a share swap deal in…

COO of Renault to step down over espionage claim

The COO of Renault, Patrick Pélata, resigned on Tuesday following an internal and external audit which showed ‘a chain of failures’ in the manner the car manufacturer handled a scandal which alleged industrial espionage by its employees and led to three unjust dismissals. The audit especially blamed ‘the supervision and control of activities of management…

UK and Dutch to sue Iceland for Icesave money

The Netherlands and Britain are planning to take Iceland to court for refusing to repay money paid to Icesave depositors following the collapse of the country’s banking system in 2008, said chief secretary of the treasury, Danny Alexander. Icelandic voters have rejected the government backed deal to pay back to Britain and the Netherlands $5.8bn…

Portugal asks for EU bailout

Portugal’s caretaker government under José Sócrates last night requested an EU bailout, making Portugal the third EU member, after Ireland and Greece, to seek financial assistance. The move comes after the country’s long term government bond rating was downgraded by Moody’s on Tuesday by a notch from A3 to BAA1 and the credit agency said Portugal…

Commerzbank to repay 14.3bn euro aid by June

Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest lender said on Wednesday it plans to repay 14.3bn euro in state aid by June through the sale of new shares and the use of excess capital. The bank said it is to pay back €14.3bn of the €16.2bn in “silent participation”, a type of non-voting capital received by the German government…

Portugal moves closer to bailout

Portugal’s long term government bond rating has been downgraded by Moody’s by a notch from A3 to BAA1, the credit agency said. Moody’s cautioned that it expects Portugal to have to look for external help to resolve its debt crisis.  In a statement the agency said: “The limited migration of the rating to BAA1 in today’s…