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Articles by Julia Werdigier
Oil Company Says Gas Leak Costs $2.5 Million a Day
LONDON — Total, the French oil company, said Monday that a natural gas leak off the coast of Scotland was costing it $2.5 million a day and that it was too early to say when it could be stopped. Total said the leak, which started at its Elgin platform eight days ago, is losing the company $1.5 million a day in earnings and generating another $1 million a day in costs. The price of stopping the leak could reach $200 million if two relief wells are drilled, as is now planned.
Diageo Uses Scotch to Plug Gap in Pension Plan
LONDON — Diageo, the maker of Johnnie Walker whiskey, found an innovative way to plug a gaping deficit in its pension plan: put aside 2 million barrels of maturing whiskey from its distilleries in Scotland. Diageo said Thursday it would transfer ownership of £430 million, or $645 million, worth of whiskey to a pension funding partnership.
Rosneft and BP in Deal to Explore Russian Arctic
That deal, announced in November, put BP’s total asset sales at about $21 billion. BP has also sold assets in Pakistan, Venezuela, Vietnam and the United States. The agreement allows BP to expand its operation in Russia at a time when the demand for energy is rising and competition to explore new fields is heating up.
Northern Rock chairman quits after criticism from lawmakers
LONDON — Northern Rock, the British lender that last month was the target of the country's first bank run in 140 years, said Friday that its chairman, Matt Ridley, had resigned. Bryan Sanderson, a former chairman of Standard Chartered, another British bank, will replace Ridley, who had offered to step down in September after Northern Rock ran into trouble. Its crisis was a result of the global market turmoil that had started earlier this year with some bad mortgage loans in the United States.
The Origins of Lehman's 'Repo 105'
As The New York Times’s article on the court-appointed examiner’s report on Lehman Brothers makes clear, perhaps the most newsworthy element to pop out of the inquest’s 2,200 pages is an accounting trick known as “Repo 105.” Named after a technical aspect of the gimmick, the accounting sleight of hand helped Lehman temporarily remove about $50 billion of assets from its balance sheet, helping to make it look better than it really was.
The World Cup Is Not Just a Game, It’s a Promotion
TomTom, the maker of road navigation systems that is based in the Netherlands, is promising to refund money to customers on specific purchases in nine countries, including Germany, Mexico and Spain, if their respective team wins. Most promotions end before the tournament starts and many companies hedged their risk.
HSBC Agrees to Sell Insurance Units for $914 Million
LONDON — HSBC said on Wednesday that it was selling its general insurance businesses in Asia and Latin America for $914 million as part of its plan to focus on more profitable and faster-growing businesses. HSBC, one of Europe’s largest banks, said it would sell the general insurance units in Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico to AXA of France for $494 million.
Li Ka-shing Group Offers $3.8 Billion for British Utility
Northumbrian Water, a British utility, said on Monday that it had received a takeover proposal worth $3.8 billion from a company controlled by Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest man. The water company, which has about 4.4 million customers in Britain, said Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings made a nonbinding takeover proposal bid of £4.65 a share, or £2.4 billion. That is 9.1 percent above Northumbrian’s closing share price on Friday.
The New York Times
UBS is one of Europe’s biggest banks, and the trading scandal provided another shock to a financial system that is already in a fragile state. European banks have been facing increasing difficulty maintaining the trust of investors and international lenders, making it difficult for them to raise the money they need to do business. UBS reiterated on Saturday that it had enough capital to cover the trading loss not to seriously threaten the overall health of the bank.
Fashion Label Nicole Farhi Is in Bankruptcy
LONDON – Nicole Farhi, the upmarket fashion label, has run out of money and filed for a form of bankruptcy proceedings in the latest sign of trouble for British retailers. The company, named after the designer who founded the label in 1982, appointed the restructuring adviser Zolfo Cooper to take over the business and find a buyer, Zolfo Cooper said on Wednesday. If no buyer can be found, it may have to close. Nicole Farhi was set up as part of the larger British fashion company French Connection.
The New York Times
LONDON — Global oil companies said Monday that they were making plans to evacuate employees in Libya after some operations there were disrupted by political unrest. Libya holds the largest crude oil reserves in Africa, and the moves drove some stock prices down and a crucial oil benchmark to a three-year high.
The New York Times
A Swiss investment company plans to raise awareness about the shortage of women on corporate boards around the world and generate returns for its investors in the process. Naissance Capital, based in Zurich, will start the Women’s Leadership Fund in January, which will invest in companies whose boards include women. It also plans to take minority stakes in companies without women on their boards and to use its ownership to encourage changes. R.
Outcry Grows Against British Housing Plan
LONDON — Depending on where one stands in the debate on the rising cost of housing in Britain, Paul Thomas and Abigail Walker, first-time home buyers, are either part of the solution or part of the problem. To buy a £248,000, or $386,000, two-bedroom house in Oxfordshire, west of London, Mr. Thomas, a 38-year-old electrician, and his 25-year-old partner, Ms. Walker, who works in an accounting office, are making use of a government program called Help to Buy.
Amy Winehouse Found Dead in London, Police Say
LONDON — Amy Winehouse, the Grammy-award winning singer who has battled addiction problems for years, was found dead on Saturday at her apartment in London, the police said. She was 27. The police were called by an ambulance to Ms. Winehouse’s apartment in Camden, North London, shortly before 4:05 pm, the police said in a statement. Ms. Winehouse was pronounced dead at the scene. “Enquiries continue into the circumstances of the death,” the police said.
Diageo Ends Talks to Buy Jose Cuervo Brand
LONDON — The British liquor company Diageo said on Tuesday that it had ended talks to take over the tequila brand Jose Cuervo after failing to agree on a deal with its owners. Diageo, the maker of Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker Scotch, will stop distributing Cuervo when an agreement with the tequila brand’s owners, the Beckmann family of Mexico, expires at the end of June after 27 years.
Hotel Review: Laura Ashley’s The Manor Hotel in Elstree, England
With its timber-painted black-and-white exterior, Laura Ashley’s The Manor looks like a typical Tudor mansion, but it really dates back to the Victorian age. It was turned into a hotel in the 1980s before Laura Ashley, the British furniture and fabric design company, bought it in 2012. The property underwent a serious refurbishment but kept many of the original features, including impressive wood-carved fireplaces and lattice windows, and reopened last July.
British Regulator Fines Drunken Oil Trader
LONDON — Alcohol-induced behavior has produced many unintended consequences, but pushing up the global price of oil and losing $10 million must rank among the most novel. Britain’s financial regulator disclosed on Tuesday that Steven Noel Perkins, a former oil futures broker, single-handedly engineered a jump in the price of oil a year ago and cost his firm millions of dollars with a string of unauthorized trades after a weekend of heavy drinking.
HSBC Lays Out New Pay Plan for Top Executives
LONDON — As it reported a profit for last year that fell short of analysts’ estimates, HSBC on Monday laid out how it was changing its compensation for senior executives, becoming the first major bank here to describe how it was circumventing a new European Union cap on bonuses. The London-based HSBC said that it would award 665 of its senior managers — including its chief executive, Stuart T.
Chinese Developer Envisions a Future for Abandoned London Docks
LONDON — Known for ambitious plans in China for business parks the size of cities, Xu Weiping says he cannot wait to start work on his first project abroad: turning an abandoned London dock into Europe’s main hub for Chinese companies. “I’m a man with a vision and the ability to turn my dream into reality,” said Mr. Xu, dressed in a yellow-and-white Versace shirt, a black velvet jacket and patent-leather shoes with gold buckles.
Cigarette Ads Return to British TV in a Cloud of Vapor
LONDON — About 50 years after Britain banned television advertisements for cigarettes, they are back. Except this time they are for the electronic kind. British American Tobacco, one of Europe’s biggest tobacco companies, said it would start showing television ads for its Vype electronic cigarettes in Britain Monday evening. The ads, which will also run online, are made possible by a loophole in the British advertising code written years before e-cigarettes came into widespread use.
Tax Gain Bolsters Profit at UBS
The Swiss bank UBS reported higher than expected fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday as a far-reaching restructuring started to pay off and it benefited from a tax gain. The bank said net profit for the last three months of 2013 rose to 917 million Swiss francs, or $1 billion, from a loss of 1.9 billion francs in the period a year earlier, when the bank faced legal costs. A Reuters poll of 16 banks and brokerages forecast an average net profit of 354 million francs.
Standard Chartered’s Finance Chief to Leave
Standard Chartered said on Thursday that its chief financial officer, Richard Meddings, is stepping down. LONDON — Standard Chartered said on Thursday that its chief financial officer, Richard Meddings, will leave as part of a major restructuring that will combine the bank’s wholesale and consumer businesses. Mr. Meddings, 55, is to leave Standard Chartered, which is based in London but generates most of its earnings in Asia and other emerging markets, at the end of June.
European Union Warns on Bitcoin
LONDON – The European Union on Friday added to a string of recent warnings about the safety of using and investing in Bitcoin, the virtual currency that is not issued by any government. The union’s banking authority said consumers needed to be aware that they were not protected through regulation when paying with Bitcoins.
European Union Warns on Bitcoin
LONDON - The European Union on Friday added to a string of recent warnings about the safety of using and investing in Bitcoin, the virtual currency that is not issued by any government. The union's banking authority said consumers needed to be aware that they were not protected through regulation when paying with Bitcoins.
Swiss Bank Becomes First to Participate in U.S. Tax Deal
LONDON – Valiant Bank, a small Swiss bank, became the first in Switzerland to say that it would sign up to a deal with the United States aimed at ending a three-year tax evasion dispute with Switzerland. Valiant, a retail bank that offers private banking services, said late on Monday that its management had decided to take part in the deal, which was struck by American and Swiss authorities in August.
Moncler Sets Price Range for Public Offering
Moncler, the Italian maker of luxury winter jackets, plans to raise as much as $1.1 billion in its initial public offering on the Milan stock exchange. The price range for the apparel maker, which had abandoned a plan for an initial share sale in 2011, was 8.75 to 10.2 euros a share (or $11.87 to $13.84), according to a statement late Tuesday from Eurazeo, the French investment company that owns 45 percent of the company.
British Government Report Assails R.B.S. Lending Practices
LONDON – Royal Bank of Scotland, the British bank principally owned by the government, pushed some business clients into serious financial difficulties to charge certain fees and take over their assets on the cheap, a report commissioned by the government said on Monday.
Is Monty Python Still Funny? Troupe Members Want to Know
LONDON — There might not be any silly walks — John Cleese said his artificial knee and hip would not allow it — but Monty Python, the British comedy troupe, is planning to perform many of its greatest hits when it reunites live on stage for its first large-scale public event in more than 30 years.
Hector Sants Resigns From Barclays
LONDON – Barclays said on Wednesday that Hector W. Sants would not return to his post as compliance chief after taking a leave of absence because of exhaustion and stress last month. Mr. Sants, a former head of Britain’s financial regulator, resigned after concluding that he would not be able to return to work in the near term, Barclays said in a statement. Barclays also said that its chief operations and technology officer, Shaygan Kheradpir, was leaving.
Bank of England Eyes Raising Rates Sooner Than Expected
LONDON — The Bank of England said on Wednesday that it might consider raising interest rates earlier than previously expected because Britain’s economic recovery was gaining speed. The announcement came after months of speculation by some economists and investors that a stronger economy would force the British central bank to change its forecast of when unemployment would fall to 7 percent and to start considering raising its benchmark interest rate.
Applying Plumbers' Common Sense to Fix Europe's Banks
Charlie Mullins made his fortune fixing other people’s plumbing. More recently, Mr. Mullins, the outspoken founder and owner of Pimlico Plumbers in London, is seeking to fix the European banking sector. His idea is to reduce bankers’ pay and by doing so force banks to become more cost-effective and customer-friendly. Threats that bankers would leave London or Frankfurt and move to the United States or Asia should their compensation be curbed are bluffs that need to be called, he said.
R.B.S. to Split Off $61 Billion in Loans Into Internal 'Bad Bank'
LONDON – The Royal Bank of Scotland, which is principally owned by the British government after a bailout five years ago, said Friday that it would put its bad loans into a separate entity within the bank as part of a plan to speed up its overhaul and return money to taxpayers. The plan, which includes the creation of an “internal bad bank,” came after the government had asked for a review four months ago into whether R.B.S. should be split up but on Friday opted against a breakup.
3 Star London Deal Makers Form Advisory Boutique
Simon Robertson, former chairman of Rolls-Royce, will be nonexecutive chairman of a new advisory firm. LONDON – They could call themselves the three Simons of investment banking. Simon Warshaw, who announced his departure from UBS two weeks ago, will team up with Simon Robey, a former Morgan Stanley banker, and Simon Robertson, a longtime banker and former chairman of the Rolls-Royce Group, the bankers said in a statement on Thursday.
Lloyds Profit Soars to $2.5 Billion as It Reduced Costs and Bad Loans
LONDON – Lloyds Banking Group, the British lender partly-owned by the government, said Tuesday that earnings in the third quarter rose 83 percent as it continued to reduce costs and the quality of its loans improved. Profit for the three months to the end of September rose to 1.5 billion pounds, or $2.5 billion, up from £831 million in the same period last year.
Plan Aims to Fix Sewers, but Its Cost to Residents Leaves a Bad Taste
LONDON — On a particularly hot summer day in 1858, the smell of raw sewage from the River Thames became so unbearable that legislators had the curtains of the Houses of Parliament soaked in chloride of lime. When that failed to repel the odors, members of Parliament simply abandoned the place.
Barclays' Compliance Chief to Take Leave of Absence
LONDON – Barclays said on Tuesday that Hector W. Sants, the bank’s compliance chief and a former head of Britain’s financial regulator, would take a leave of absence because of exhaustion and stress. Mr. Sants, who joined Barclays in January to help repair the bank’s image after a rate-rigging scandal, plans to return to his job at the end of the year. Mr. Sants’s responsibilities will be split among colleagues during his absence.
An Obsessive Culture Aimed at Being a World-Beater
Martin Whitmarsh is chief executive of the McLaren Group, which owns the McLaren Formula One car racing team. A. A good leader is a good listener. You’re leading people and not an apparatus or a machinery so you have to be prepared to listen. Some leaders are better in transmitting than receiving. You also have to ensure that people within the organization know what they’re aiming for.
Royal Mail Shares Surge in Debut
LONDON – Shares of Royal Mail rose 38 percent on their first day of trading on the London Stock Exchange on Friday, adding to criticism from some policymakers that the government sold a majority of Britain’s main postal service too cheaply. Royal Mail, whose roots date back to the court of Henry VIII in the 16th century, made its stock market debut after its shares were priced at 3.3 pounds, or $5.30, each on Thursday, valuing the company at $5.3 billion.
Royal Mail Shares Priced at High End
LONDON – Shares of Royal Mail were priced on Thursday at the top of end of the government’s original range, valuing the company at $5.3 billion. In the biggest privatization since the government sold the railways in the 1990s, shares of the postal service were priced at 330 pence, or $5.28, each. “The buzz is huge,” said David Scott, a stockbroker at Redmayne Bentley, which has been handing out information fliers about the pending share sale on London streets.
British Postal Service Valued at $5.3 Billion in I.P.O.
LONDON – Royal Mail, Britain’s 360-year-old postal service, is to be valued as much as $5.3 billion in its initial public share sale scheduled for next month, the government said on Friday. After deciding to go ahead with the privatization of the service earlier this month, the British government said that shares would be priced at £2.60, or $4.20, to £3.30, valuing the group at £2.6 billion to £3.3 billion. The shares are to start trading in London on Oct. 11.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn Joins an Investment Firm
LONDON — Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund whose career was damaged by a series of sexual scandals, is transforming himself into an investment banker. Mr. Strauss-Kahn joined Anatevka, an investment banking boutique based in Luxembourg, as chairman, the company’s founder Thierry Leyne, said Thursday. Anatevka will soon be renamed LSK, or Leyne, Strauss-Kahn and Partners, and offer investment banking advice and services, Mr. Leyne said.
ICAP to Pay $87 Million Fine in Libor-Fixing Case
LONDON – American and British regulators fined the financial firm ICAP a combined $87 million on Wednesday for its role in the manipulation of the benchmark interest rate known as Libor, making it the fourth major financial company to reach a settlement in the global investigation.
Veteran UBS Banker to Depart
LONDON – A veteran UBS banker, Simon Warshaw, is leaving the bank after 27 years. The move comes less than a month after the he helped his client Vodafone seal a $130 billion deal, one of the largest in history. Mr. Warshaw, who joined UBS as a graduate trainee, resigned “to embark on a new chapter in his career,” Andrea Orcel, the chief executive of UBS’s investment banking unit, wrote in an internal e-mail obtained by DealBook.
Ackermann to Resign From Board of Siemens
Josef Ackermann was once the chief executive of Deutsche Bank and chairman of Zurich Insurance Group. Josef Ackermann, the former chief executive of Deutsche Bank, plans to resign as a deputy chairman of Siemens, a move that comes shortly after he abruptly resigned as chairman of Zurich Insurance Group last month. Mr. Ackermann had stepped down from his post at Zurich Insurance after he was mentioned in a suicide note written by the company’s chief financial officer, Pierre Wauthier.
After Taking a Beating Overseas, Tesco Seeks Comfort at Home
LONDON — On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Maureen Goodwin sat sipping a cup of coffee and reading a book in a coffee shop. Next to her were a newspaper and some flowers she had just purchased. “I come here every day,” said Ms. Goodwin, 84. Her favorite spot was the Harris and Hoole coffee shop — inside a Tesco Extra hypermarket in Watford, a town just north of London. “It’s incredible what they’ve done. They must have spent an awful lot of money.” Yes, they have.
Tax haven closes for wealthy Americans
"It's pretty close to the end for Swiss banking for wealthy Americans," Ben Jones, principal associate at law firm Eversheds in London, said.
Tax Haven Closes for Wealthy Americans
LONDON — A tax deal reached between Switzerland and the United States on Thursday effectively puts an end to the status of the small Alpine country as a tax haven for wealthy Americans. The agreement, which came after more than three years of intense discussions between the two countries, is expected to punish Swiss banks that helped wealthy Americans hide money from United States tax authorities in offshore accounts and require them to disclose information about United States account holders.
Outcry Grows Against British Housing Plan
LONDON — Depending on where one stands in the debate on the rising cost of housing in Britain, Paul Thomas and Abigail Walker, first-time home buyers, are either part of the solution or part of the problem. To buy a £248,000, or $386,000, two-bedroom house in Oxfordshire, west of London, Mr. Thomas, a 38-year-old electrician, and his 25-year-old partner, Ms. Walker, who works in an accounting office, are making use of a government program called Help to Buy.
Glencore Xstrata Takes Write-Down After Merger
LONDON — The mining giant Glencore Xstrata reported sharply lower results on Tuesday after it wrote down $7.7 billion on the value of assets it acquired as part of the merger that created the company. BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, also reported a drop in profit because of a decline in commodity prices as a result of weaker worldwide demand.
UBS Repays Loan It Received During Bailout
LONDON — The Swiss National Bank said Friday that UBS had fully repaid a loan it received as part of a government bailout five years ago. The move clears the way for UBS to buy back a portfolio of distressed assets that were moved off the UBS books during the financial crisis. UBS said in July that it planned to buy back a fund set up by the Swiss central bank to include illiquid or high-risk assets as part of UBS’s bailout.
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