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Wednesday newspaper round-up: Barclays, Shire, Land Securities

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Date: Wednesday 16 Apr 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Gordon Brown said he "welcomed" proposals made by the banks to help ease the credit crunch at yesterday's breakfast summit and confirmed that the Government remains in contact with the Bank of England to find a way through the crisis, says the Telegraph.

London may lose 40,000 City jobs as a result of the sub-prime crisis and global credit crunch, according to analysts at JP Morgan Chase, reports the Telegraph.

Halifax, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, has increased mortgage rates despite yesterday's £15bn liquidity injection by the Bank of England and the Prime Minister's assurance that the authorities will act to unfreeze funding markets, writes the Independent.

Barclays said it was “wide open” for new mortgage business at a time when other lenders were reining back because of the credit squeeze, according to the FT.

Shire Pharmaceutical said yesterday that it intended to move its tax base from the UK to the Republic of Ireland, arguing that Dublin offered the group an "optimum" tax location, says the Independent.

Almost 600,000 people will be unable to refinance their debts this year after finding their usual lines of credit cut off, forcing them to go bust or sign expensive “bankruptcy-lite” agreements, reports the Times.

Land Securities, the UK’s largest property company, is to test the fragile property investment market with the sale of one of its largest holdings, in the Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham, according to the FT.

Robert Tchenguiz's investment group R20 has held talks with hedge fund Trafalgar Asset Managers about selling some or all of its 23pc stake in pub group Mitchells & Butler, writes the Telegraph.

Clara Furse, the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, has warned of a “domino effect” of spreading anti-competitive behaviour if UK regulators do not intervene to force competition in the exchange clearing business, says the FT.

BP has confirmed that a Chinese state-owned company has built up a stake of about 1 per cent in the oil and gas group but said it did not yet know which group had made the investment, reports the FT.

Carmakers in Europe have suffered their worst month in more than four years as the impact of the credit crunch begins to be felt by industry, according to the Times.

The UK biotechnical industry has received a major boost with the $160m (£81m) buyout of private cancer treatment company Piramed by Swiss drug giant Roche Holding, says the Telegraph.

Hundreds of jobs could go at Ethel Austin after the discount fashion chain last night became the latest high street retailer to go into administration, reports the Times.