Investments
BP Shares Plummet as Top Kill Fails to Stem Flow of Oil in the Gulf of Mexico
Bad news for UK shareholders today as BP’s share price started falling as concerns grew that it could take months before BP can control the oil leak in the seabed. As we feared last week pension plans and long term investment funds will be affected by the sudden downturn of this “safe” stock. This disaster... learn more »
Kraft Nears Victory in Cadbury Battle
This morning, Cadbury’s board has advised shareholders to accept an improved offer from US food company Kraft. The improved offer values Cadbury at £11.5bn, an increase of £1bn from the original offer made last November, and is worth 840 pence per share, with Cadbury shareholders also receiving a 10p dividend. If the deal goes through, shareholders... learn more »
British Banks Continue to Charge Excessive Overdraft Fees
A Court Ruling has overturned a previous decision to allow the Office of Fair Trading to investigate the fairness of charges for unauthorised overdrafts. Many people get stung for huge fees and interest rates when they go overdrawn without any agreement in place. The credit crunch and job losses have put many more people... learn more »
RBS Battles Enforced Break-Up
The beleaguered Royal Bank of Scotland has until the end of this week to agree an acceptable roadmap with both the UK Government and the European Commission. Since taking on unprecedented Government support, CEO Stephen Hester has been battling to reconcile the interests of his shareholders and those of the Government and EC. It has been... learn more »
Friends Provident & Resolution – Update
Friends Provident shareholders have until Friday 30th October to return their forms to the company, stating whether they wish to accept the cash offer or shares in Resolution plc. Shareholders can receive 79.4p for each FP share (up to the first 2500 shares in their holding) and 0.9 new Resolution shares for the remainder of their holding. Or,... learn more »
T-Mobile & Orange To Merge
Following yesterday’s news that T-Mobile was the subject of bids from Vodafone and Telefonica (the Spanish owner of the O2 brand), comes today’s announcement that T-Mobile is to merge with France Telecom’s UK brand Orange. This wedding of the third and fourth largest UK mobile phone companies will create a new market leader, with 36.4%... learn more »
ETFs – Unbelievable!
OK, so it was EMF who had a hit with Unbelievable back in 1990 and OK, maybe it’s stretching the facts a bit to call Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) unbelievable, but they do have some interesting properties and are now heavily used by the asset management industry. Traditionally, investors who wanted exposure to a number... learn more »
Cash ISAs – Slash and Earn?
With interest rates at historically low levels, many cash ISAs are now paying unattractive rates of interest, often less than can be realised from a standard savings account. As rates have been slashed by providers, do the benefits still stack up? Cash ISAs give the opportunity to earn interest on cash without the interest being... learn more »
Demerger / Spin-Off – Mandatory Corporate Action
A spin-off / demerger is when a company decided to break away part of its business into a new entity. There are various reasons why a company may do this. Multinational corporations may want to set up new brands within other countries. Generally it is a branding decision, in that a company may decide... learn more »