Lloyds TSB faces shareholder revolt – report 29 Feb 2004 First the UK bank lost wellregarded finance director Philip Hampton. Now its preferred replacement Helen Weir has shareholders grumbling. The dilemma for chief executive Eric Daniels: push Weir through and enhance a reputation for autocracy; or retreat and appear weakened.
Disney dissidents may fall flat 27 Feb 2004 Weak US shareholders' rights and divisions among the dissidents are to blame. While more than a third of the media group s shareholders may withhold votes for Michael Eisner, it may not matter.
Battle for Telegraph kicks off in earnest 27 Feb 2004 A Delaware court has foiled Black s attempt to cut a sweetheart deal with the Barclay Brothers, blackening his name even further. That leaves Hollinger free to peddle its papers to the highest bidder. This is good for minority shareholders.
Fiat investors get ahead of themselves 27 Feb 2004 The ailing car manufacturer has made some progress in a pretty dire environment. But this is only the beginning. Yet Fiat s shares, which rose 10% over the last month, already discount that the relaunch plan will deliver on its promises.
German corporate governance on trial 27 Feb 2004 The Mannesmann trial is a legal nonsense. No one was harmed by the company paying large bonuses to Klaus Esser and others. But it has highlighted big shortcomings in Germany's supervisory board system.
Oracle vows to continue PeopleSoft fight 27 Feb 2004 The US Department of Justice has sued to stop Oracle s hostile bid for rival software firm PeopleSoft. Too bad for Oracle s shareholders. It is long past time that the company gave up.
KPN shares are too cheap 27 Feb 2004 The Dutch telecoms operator's shares have attracted a management discount after a botched bid and a bungled profit warning. KPN's management may be guilty of underselling the company's prospects. But it does not look hellbent upon destroying value.
Brunswick may offer £2m stakes for £20,000 27 Feb 2004 It sounds like a madly generous deal. But it isn't as economically illiterate as it looks. The PR group's owner, Alan Parker, gets something back for his largesse.
RTL mulls merging Channel 5 with UK’s Channel 4 27 Feb 2004 The niche commercial terrestrial channels compete almost headon. Together they could better challenge BBC, ITV and Sky. But the government has long been shy of privatising C4. Structuring the deal will be tricky.
Roche’s new cancer drug a potential blockbuster 27 Feb 2004 Investors have got that message sort of. But they still seem to be seriously underestimating Avastin's potential. Estimates of $1bn$2bn a year in peak sales look low. It could easily be double that.
Abbey dashes hopes of bumper turnaround 26 Feb 2004 The bank is unlikely to be able to afford to do a big share buyback funded by its restructuring. The core business is still declining too. The shares have dived on the news. But Abbey was always downbeat. The market wanted to believe in a quick recovery story.
Hoechst disappears. Bayer, unfortunately, won’t. 26 Feb 2004 The two German conglomerates were nearly twins prior to Hoechst s breakup in 1998. The breakup may not have created value. But Bayer s dithering has destroyed more than half its worth in six years.
Providence and Soros to make a mint on Eircom 26 Feb 2004 The private equity houses are in line to make a 36% internal rate of return on their investment when the Irish telecoms group floats. Financial engineering is only partly responsible for this. The investors have mainly profited from their own efforts.
Greenspan loses popularity contest 26 Feb 2004 The Fed chairman s latest audience with Congress will go down as one of his least upbeat for lawmakers, the White House and workforce. But during an election year, that only proves the value of his judgments. His warnings about risks to the US economy are right on.
Broadcasters look expensive 26 Feb 2004 European broadcasters have roared ahead in the runup to the economic recovery. But investors should give the boring old publishers another look while they are still cheap.
HVB grabs E3bn while it can 26 Feb 2004 The German bank has shrewdly taken advantage of prevailing investor optimism to refinance itself. Now it should focus on its main remaining problem: stagnant growth.
Wal-Mart shouldn’t buy Carrefour 26 Feb 2004 Rumours about a bid aren t too surprising, given how badly the French giant s stock has suffered. But as WalMart s own experience in Germany shows cultural issues can pose big problems in a deal.
HBOS struggles to convince 25 Feb 2004 The UK bank hit its targets in 2003 yet investors seem to have become more sceptical that CEO James Crosby can deliver. After all, Crosby is pulling back a bit from the mortgage market even though his strategy has been all about aggressively piling on loans.
KPN’s mmO2 offer wasn’t crazy 25 Feb 2004 In fact, the bid would have created value for KPN and carried a solution to flowback. The Dutch group's shares have been hammered on fears it would overpay and lead to massive flowback. All it needed was to be improved a touch and sold to the market.
Airlines bullish on 2004 25 Feb 2004 Profits are bouncing back nicely at most European network airlines. But a rising tide shouldn't lift all boats equally. BA and Iberia look to be the best bets.
How Group 4 securicored a premium 25 Feb 2004 The Danish security group engineered itself a premium in its £1.5bn merger with Securicor despite being the larger company. How come? Maybe because Securicor s chief executive has eventually been promised the top job.
RWE sells Hochtief stake for E950m 25 Feb 2004 The German utility will sell its 56% holding in the construction company in a combined stock and convertible offering. By selling now, RWE fulfils its promise to simplify its structure and hedges its bets on continuing economic recovery.
Bank of Italy’s Antonio Fazio under investigation 25 Feb 2004 The governor is being investigated over the alleged fraud at Banca 121, which sold risky products. The direct threat to Fazio looks weak. But this attack will add to the general undermining of his position.
IBM issues out-of-money options 25 Feb 2004 For a US first, it's a step in the right direction. But the stock need only rise 10% or more for executives to cash in. A better alignment of management and stockholder interests would see the rewards linked to IBM s outperformance against rivals.
David-Weill shores up control of Lazard stake 25 Feb 2004 The planned merger of Eurazeo and Rue Imperiale secures the former Lazard chairman's control of a special stake in the investment bank. This gives Eurazeo the right to veto the reappointment of Lazard's current chairman.
BAT closes valuation gap with rivals 24 Feb 2004 Investors are assuming that the RJ Reynolds deal will go through without a hitch. But what about the risk of a forced disposal? After years of being overly pessimistic on BAT, investors have now thrown caution to the wind.
Currency moves distort commodity prices 24 Feb 2004 Commodity prices appear to be soaring. That suggests the world economy is recovering too, right? Not quite. It s only true in dollar terms. Use euros, and prices are actually falling. A currency basket provides the truest picture.
Another disappointment from Prudential 24 Feb 2004 The formerly solid performance of the UK insurer has become much harder to rely on. Its latest results have been hit by the falling dollar. But CEO Jonathan Bloomer is hesitant to take advantage of the weak dollar by making acquisitions in the US. He should not be so cautious.
President Putin dismisses Russian government 24 Feb 2004 The object of Putin s ire was Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, whose departure severs one of the last links with the Yeltsin era. The oddity is that Putin didn t wait a few weeks until after his reelection as President, when a government rejig would have been natural.
Vivendi plans share buyback for 2005 24 Feb 2004 After very nearly going bust, the telecom and media conglomerate will soon start returning cash to shareholders. This year will still be a transitional one. But the stock looks a good bet in the medium term.