The Independent.
The leading London hedge fund player Blaine Tomlinson was considerably better off yesterday after the firm he founded 21 years ago was bought by Man Group for up to $82.8m (£52.3m). FRM (Financial Risk Management) is a fund of hedge funds business which runs assets worth $8bn. It was started by South African Mr Tomlinson, pictured, in 1991 as a research firm, branching into fund management six years later. It mainly manages funds from the Far East, and has a strongrelationship with SumitomoMitsui Trust Bank. The business will be integrated with Man’s existing multi-manager business, lifting its assets under management to $19bn. This business is run by Luke Ellis, the former managing director ofFRM, who joined Man two years ago.
Facebook shares slumped to more than 10 per cent below their float price on their second day trading as a public company. The syndicate of Wall Street banks which, last Friday, had intervened heavily to keep the stock in positive territory was yesterday overwhelmed by sell orders and Facebook stock changed hands at as low as $33.01 in early trading, and closed at $34.03, 11 per cent down. That compares with the $38 at which Facebook and some of its earliest investors sold shares last week. At $33, the company is valued just above $90bn.
The Mail.
Total household wealth increased by 55% in the past decade to £242,000, a report has found, largely down to a significant rise in the value of property which has outpaced surging mortgage debt. That is equivalent to £86,500 per household in the ten-year period, with the value of wealth growing at a faster rate than both the rise in consumer prices and disposable income, according to the research by Lloyds TSB Private Banking. And while the financial crisis has shaved £6bn off our assets since 2007, collective household wealth in the UK was estimated to be £6.6tn at the end of 2011 – up from £4.3tn in 2001.
The Telegraph.
Stuart Gulliver, HSBC’s chief executive, has said the bank had decided to drop “indefinitely” plans to look at moving its headquarters from London to Hong Kong. HSBC, which paid 1.5bn dollars (950m pounds) tax in the UK last year, threatened to leave the UK in the face of punitive financial regulation. News that is has squashed the review into changing its domicile will be a major boost to HMRC and the UK, where HSBC employs 50,000 people. “Although we talked at one point about reviewing this, it has been postponed indefinitely,” Mr Gulliver, told a group of shareholders in Hong Kong. He added: “There are too many moving parts to make a rational, conscious decision,”
Electricity giant EDF is in talks with the nuclear regulator about extending the life of its power stations. The firm, which runs eight nuclear power stations in the UK, is working with the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) regarding the “extension of the operational lifetime of their existing fleet of nuclear power reactors”, the ONR said. The reactors are due to start decommissioning in 2016, with seven of the eight ceasing generation by 2023, according to the EDF website. The company is due to make a final investment decision on the UK’s first two new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point, Somerset, at the end of 2012.
Beleagured travel agent Thomas Cook has sold its Indian business to Canadian investor Fairfax Financial Holdings for around £94m. In a statement on Monday night, chief executive Sam Weihagen said the deal was a “further step” towards improving the company’s financial position. Thomas Cook was plunged into crisis in November after it asked its lenders for a £200m lifeline following difficult trading, sparking fears of a collapse. However, this month Thomas Cook has secured a £1.4bn refinancing and agreed a sale-and-leaseback deal on 17 aircraft that raised £183m. The sale of the company’s 77% stake in Thomas Cook India was also a vital part of Mr Weihagen’s turnaround plan.
The Times.
The Bank of England’s top brass yesterday announced a clutch of reviews into the lessons of the credit crunch as it belatedly bowed to months of parliamentary pressure. A trio of outside experts will begin investigations into the Bank’s provision of liquidity to the banking sector and into its economic forecasts, which repeatedly have been proven to be wrong. The inquiries — set up by the Court, which oversees the Bank, and to be led by Ian Plenderleith, Bill Winters and David Stockton — are due to be submitted in October. The announcement was immediately attacked as inadequate by Andrew Tyrie, the chairman of the powerful Treasury Select Committee, who has been campaigning for the Bank to improve its transparency and accountability as it prepares to take on massive powers to oversee the City.
Two former UBS wealth advisers have been banned from the City for life and fined a combined £1.3m as the Financial Services Authority concluded a near-four-year pursuit of an unauthorised trading scam. Sachin Karpe, the former head of one of UBS’s Asia trading desks, was given a £1.25m fine for “failing to act with integrity”. His junior colleague Laila Karan was fined £75,000 but was also banned for her role in helping to conceal the unauthorised deals. The fines bring to an end an inquiry that began in late 2008, sparked by a whistleblower at UBS. Two former UBS advisers have already been banned and fined a combined £185,000. UBS has been fined £8m for its control failings and made to pay $42m in compensation to customers,
