House prices are 20 per cent overvalued says Fitch
31 Jul 2007 [0 Comments | 60 views]
What have the Brits, the Danes, the Swedes the Norse and the Kiwis all got in common? Answer, according to credit ratings agency Fitch, these are the countries most vulnerable to a potential crash in house prices. And on that list of potential trouble, the UK sits rather ignominiously in third place. According to Fitch, [...]
Wall Street Journal offer in doubt
31 Jul 2007 [0 Comments | 53 views]
Talking of the Murdochs, while James busily buys Amstrad, the News Corp $5 billion purchase of The Wall Street Journal has hit a hurdle. You may recall that the Wall Street Journal has a rather peculiar structure – its founding family the, Bancrofts, have this idea of preserving editorial integrity. The firms’ owners are not [...]
You’re fired…up for a sale – Sir Alan agrees sale of Amstrad
31 Jul 2007 [0 Comments | 41 views]
Imagine the meeting. The man waits out side, on the surface calm, inside he is churning, and as a visible sign of his inner turmoil he scratches his beard. The boss, James, asks him to come into the board room. “What I don’t understand” he begins “is this.” Your company used to be innovative, clever [...]
HSBC looks to China as US crises recedes
31 Jul 2007 [0 Comments | 45 views]
Right now it feels as if the global economy is in two halves. On one side you have got the US, struggling under the weight of its massive trade deficit, which has borrowed itself to the point of crisis. On the other hand, you have got the brave new world: India and China et al [...]
Is Virgin Media an early victim as M&A worm turns?
31 Jul 2007 [0 Comments | 59 views]
“It’s the business model we don’t like,” said the private equity company that had been looking at Virgin Media. Even so, considering all this talk about a credit crunch, about how all of a sudden private equity is struggling to raise the funding, one can’t help the suspicion there’s a little more to it than [...]
Bank of England, will they dare?
30 Jul 2007 [0 Comments | 55 views]
Speculation is beginning to bubble on what the Bank of England will do next. The Bank of England, as you know, meets on the second Thursday of every month to decide the rate of interest for the next month. Well, actually, sometimes it meets on the first Thursday, and this week will contain one of [...]
Markets slide continues
30 Jul 2007 [0 Comments | 59 views]
One can assume a lot of writers for the Sunday papers made a lot of money last week. Many columnists went into “told you so” mode, so presumably as they had been so confident markets were about to fall, they had put their money on derivatives, betting on market falls. Don’t be surprised then to [...]
Private equity investigation puts investigation on hold
30 Jul 2007 [0 Comments | 65 views]
Well it is nearly August. That parliamentary committee that has been grilling the private equity boys is shutting down along with parliament until the Autumn. In the meantime it has made a decision – not to decide – yet. John McFall, chairman of Parliament’s Treasury Committee put it this way. He said “many aspects of [...]
ABN nixes Barclays bid
30 Jul 2007 [0 Comments | 79 views]
It was a kind of begrudging nod to RBS and its consortium. ABN Amro rather liked the 66 billion euros bid it received from Barclays. And it talked about how the synergies were there, how the strategic vision at the two banks fitted neatly together, but then money is money. The bid from the consortium [...]
But, are house prices about to slide?
27 Jul 2007 [0 Comments | 48 views]
Do you know what, the property industry doesn’t do bad news. Take the Halifax for example. Recently it said this “Homeowners who took out a fixed rate deal two years ago will face higher mortgage payments when they re-mortgage. A borrower with a £114,000 mortgage, taking out a two year fix in 2005 at 5.08 [...]
