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  • Financial Times sales lift Pearson

    Monday 02 Mar 2009

    Strong demand for university textbooks and high sales of the Financial Times newspaper helped publisher Pearson lift pre-tax profits by a quarter over 2008.

  • Markets crumble on new financial fears

    Monday 02 Mar 2009

    The FTSE 100 is showing the first signs of bottoming out after a brutal morning session which saw it lose 4% of its value as AIG posted the largest quarterly loss in US history and HSBC launched a £12.5bn cash call. HSBC, widely regarded as the healthiest of the UK banks, has turned to shareholders to shore up its balance sheet and has also rebased its dividend payment

  • HSBC to shut US consumer lending businesses

    Friday 27 Feb 2009

    HSBC which this morning announced a £12.5bn rights issue, is to scale back its consumer lending operations in North America.

  • CEOs in the firing line

    Friday 27 Feb 2009

    CEOs who could be in the firing line from disgruntled investors over the next year include Giles Thorley of Punch Taverns, Sly Bailey of Trinity Mirror and Mick Davis of Xstrata says DigitalLook.com, the UK’s leading financial information website for private investors.

  • Rights total above £7bn, pubcos next?

    Friday 27 Feb 2009

    Betting firm William Hill’s £350m rights issue today takes the total above £7bn but one broker suggests pub companies could be a good bet to join the cash-call trend.

  • Huge HSBC cash call sends Footsie below 3,700

    Friday 27 Feb 2009

    Footsie has tumbled towards 3,700 in the wake of HSBC's huge rights issue and deep cutbacks across its operations. HSBC is to raise £12.5bn through a fully underwritten rights issue at 254p. HSBC also said it is to scale back its consumer lending operations in North America. HSBC Finance, a subsidiary of HSBC North America Holdings, said its US consumer lending businesses

  • Sir Fred clings on to pension pot

    Friday 27 Feb 2009

    Sir Fred Goodwin, the former Royal Bank of Scotland boss, is clinging on to his £650,000-a-year pension despite Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisting that failure should not be rewarded.

  • Sir Fred clings on to pension pot

    Friday 27 Feb 2009

    Sir Fred Goodwin, the former Royal Bank of Scotland boss, is clinging on to his £650,000-a-year pension despite Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisting that failure should not be rewarded.

  • Lloyds yet to agree asset protection deal

    Friday 27 Feb 2009

    Part-nationalised Lloyds Banking confirmed that it has not yet signed up for the government’s toxic asset insurance scheme as it announced a £10.8bn loss at HBOS. HBOS, which Lloyds took over last year, was hit by £9.9bn of losses on bad loans. The former Lloyds TSB business made a £807m pre-tax profit, down 80% on last year and worse than the £1.3bn profit analysts had expected.

  • Dark day for dividends

    Thursday 26 Feb 2009

    Income investors, already hit by a rush to cut dividends, suffered further distress today as the recession forced several businesses to either axe or dramatically reduce payouts.

  • Centrica bucks job cut frenzy

    Thursday 26 Feb 2009

    A number of companies announced job cuts this morning, though there was one firm that said it would actually recruit more staff.

  • Liberty considers £350m rights after huge loss

    Thursday 26 Feb 2009

    Shopping centre owner Liberty is looking at a £350m rights issue plus more asset disposals after a huge write-down sent into a full year loss of more than £2.6bn.

  • GM posts $31bn loss as car sales slump

    Thursday 26 Feb 2009

    US car giant GM reported a massive loss after what it described as a ‘collapse in vehicle demand.’

  • Sir Fred asked to hand back £650k pension

    Thursday 26 Feb 2009

    The government has asked former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Sir Fred Goodwin to give up his £650,000-a-year pension as punishment for the bank’s downfall.

  • Liberty considers capital raising after huge loss

    Thursday 26 Feb 2009

    Shopping centre owner Liberty is looking at a combination of new capital and asset disposals after a huge write-down sent into a full year loss of more than £2.6bn.

  • Lloyds confirms £10.8bn HBOS loss

    Thursday 26 Feb 2009

    Part-nationalised Lloyds Banking said HBOS, which it took over last year, made a loss of £10.8bn as it announced that it is still in talks about its participation in the government’s toxic asset insurance scheme. The former Lloyds TSB business made a £807m pre-tax profit, down 80% on last year and worse than the £1.3bn profit analysts had expected.

  • FSA chairman says regulation was “wrong”

    Wednesday 25 Feb 2009

    Adair Turner, the head of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), said the way the watchdog regulated banks was wrong, adding that it would only be “fit for purpose” once the modernisation of the regulator was complete.

  • Green merges Arcadia and Bhs

    Wednesday 25 Feb 2009

    Retail billionaire Philip Green has confirmed reports he his to merge his Bhs department store chain with Arcadia, which runs his high street chains, to cut costs.

  • What to expect from RBS tomorrow

    Wednesday 25 Feb 2009

    Toxic assets and investments made by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group look set to become a taxpayer liability. The part-nationalised banks, due to report full-year results tomorrow and Friday respectively, could put up to £500bn worth of assets into the government’s Asset Protection Scheme (APS).

  • Barratt loses £592m; no cash call

    Tuesday 24 Feb 2009

    Expectations of a cash call by Barratt Developments proved unfounded as the heavily indebted housebuilder reduced debt by £278m in the second half of 2008, despite plunging into the red.Barratt made a loss before tax in the six months to 31 December 2008 of £80m, excluding exceptional items, compared with a pre-tax profit the year before of £201.8m.

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