Greece’s Euro Fate Hangs Over Merkel-Hollande Meet
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande will try to present a united front when they meet on Thursday ahead of a fateful few weeks for Greece’s eurozone future. As leaders of the bloc’s top two economies, the pair carry the weight of expectations that they will drive decisive action to remedy the...
Heineken Posts 1H2012 Net Profit of US$975 million
Heineken on Wednesday posted a net profit of EUR783 million (US$975 million) for the first half of 2012, as the giant Dutch brewer moves to expand in the lucrative Asian beer market. The Amsterdam-based group’s sales rose by 4.5 per cent to EUR8.778 billion over the same period, and the bottomline buoyed by the sale...
Siemens Preparing to Axe ‘Thousands’ of Jobs
German engineering giant Siemens, which is increasingly feeling the effects of the economic downturn, is to slash “thousands” of jobs, the financial daily Boersen Zeitung reported on Tuesday. A company spokesman declined to comment on the information when contacted by AFP, but said that Siemens was scheduled to hold its traditional annual management conference in...
ECB to ‘Supervise” All Eurozone Banks
The European Commission wants the European Central Bank to act as supervisor for all eurozone banks, not just the region’s biggest, the business daily Handelsblatt reported on Friday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had said at the end of June that the new banking supervisory authority, which is to be set up under the umbrella...
Ikea Eyes EUR1-billion Move into Hotels
Swedish furniture giant Ikea plans a EUR1-billion move into the hotel sector, opening at least 100 hotels in Europe, according to a company executive cited by a Swedish daily. “We’ve been searching for property across Europe for a while and we’ll announce in a few weeks where we’ll open our own hotel,” Svenska Dagbladet quoted...
Euro-Area Economy Contracts in Second Quarter on Spain
The euro-area economy contracted in the second quarter after the worsening debt crisis and tougher budget cuts forced at least six nations into recessions. Gross domestic product in the 17-nation currency bloc fell 0.2 per cent from the first quarter, when it stagnated, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said Tuesday. That is in...
France Dodges Recession with Zero Growth in Second Quarter
France’s economy managed zero growth in the second quarter of 2012, data showed on Tuesday, beating expectations it would begin a slide into recession. In its first flash estimate for the second quarter, the national statistics institute INSEE said that French gross domestic product (GDP) was unchanged. That confounded expectations by many economists, including...
Greek GDP Sinks as Crisis Batters Economy
Greece’s economy contracted 6.2 per cent in the second quarter as belt-tightening to slash deficits continued to take a toll, hampering efforts to meet targets set by the country’s international lenders for continued bailout funding. Currently in its fifth consecutive year, the economic downturn has driven unemployment to record highs, with nearly one in four...
Julius Baer to Buy Merrill Lynch Private Bank Outside US
Swiss private bank Julius Baer is to buy Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch private bank outside the United States, paying CHF860 million (Swiss francs) (US$882 million) to boost its assets under management by 40 per cent and backing the deal with plans to raise 1.19 billion francs in new capital. The acquisition, the latest in...
Banks Could be Obliged to Set Libor Rates
Banks could be obliged to contribute to setting Libor benchmark interest rates after a rigging scandal prompted demands for an overhaul, the British financial regulator in charge of the review said on Thursday. In future, fewer transactions are likely to be based on the London interbank offered rate (Libor) and regulation could be tightened for...
Manchester United Slashes Price for US IPO
Britain’s world-renowned football club Manchester United slashed the price of its US share launch, cutting the amount it was raising in Friday’s IPO to US$233 million from a hoped-for US$300 million or more. The fabled team, mired in debt since 2005 after a heavily leveraged takeover by the Glazer family of Miami-based investors, lowered its...
Bank of England in No Rush for More Stimulus Despite Bleak Economy
Britain’s economy will barely grow this year and may have taken a bigger hit from the eurozone debt crisis than thought, the Bank of England said on Wednesday, but it gave little indication that it would rush to pour further stimulus into the economy. The BoE resumed its asset buying last month, launching a...
