Financial Times Summary
Mon 28 Jul 2008
Marshall Wace
Marshall Wace, the £7.5bn London hedge fund, has poached Morgan Stanley's head of Asian proprietary trading to set up a financials fund as hedge funds seek bargains amid bombed-out bank shares. Amit Rajpal, a former analyst in Hong Kong for the investment bank, will have his fund seeded with more than $200m from the hedge fund, according to two insiders.
ANZ Bank
ANZ bank, Australia's third largest lender, issued a profit warning today, forecasting more than $1billion in bad debt charges, as the global credit crisis started to hurt the country's previously buoyant banks. The announcement sent ANZ shares down as much as 13.2% in early trade.
Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse and Instinet Europe, the broker that is majority-owned by Nomura of Japan, agreed to allow mutual access to each other's dark pools-off-exchange venues that allow large blocks of shares to be traded anonymously.
HBOS
HBOS is seeking bidders for Hill Hire, one of the UK's largest trucks and trailer rental specialists, which is owned by the UK bank and valued at about £300m. HBOS, which took Hill Hire private in 1999 for £74m, has appointed Grant Thornton to carry out the sale, which is expected to attract both private equity and strategic buyers.
Dawnay Day
Aviva, the UK's biggest insurer, will face questions next week about £750m of loans made to Dawnay Day, the property and financial services group. Aviva is to report interim results on Wednesday, and some investors and analysts have questioned why the insurer was involved in lending to Dawnay Day, parts of whose labyrinthe empire are in receivership.
Swiss Re
Swiss Re has expressed interest in acquiring the life assurance business of Barclays. The UK bank is reviewing options for the unit, which it does not consider to be the core of its operations. Barclays Life Assurance Company, which has £7bn under management, looks after policyholders' life, pension and investment plans and pays pensions to more than 70,000 people every month.
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