Financial Times Summary

HBOS
HBOS is to offload a £400m portfolio of investments in private companies as it seeks to shrink its balance sheet and withdraw from some areas of activity. The UK's biggest mortgage lender, which last week reported a 72% fall in interim pre-tax profits, has asked UBS to raise a fund from private investors to acquire part of HBOS's stakes in companies such as Keepmoat, a renovator of social housing and Ainscough, the UK's largest crane operator. UBS is expected to have approached long-term partners of the bank.

Landesbanken
Germany's state-owned Landesbanken have been warned of disaster in the rush to consolidate.

Gartmore
Glyn Jones, former chief executive of investment managers, Gartmore and briefly of River Thames Capital, is stepping up to chair Hermes, the manager of the UK's largest pension fund. The appointment of Mr Jones, who trained as a management consultant, will underline Hermes' new strategy of becoming a multi-boutique of autonomous asset management units and its increasing independence from its parent, the BT pension scheme.

Kaupthing
Fears of a systematic financial crisis in Iceland have dissipated after the country's three main banks announced second-quarter results last week showing that they were suffering amid the downturn-but not too badly. Credit losses deepened across the board and market weakness undermined the performance of the bank's investments but their capital strength, core lending and commission income remained relatively robust. Kaupthing said net profit fell 40% in the second quarter, Landsbanki's net profit dropped 3% and Glitnir's declined 20%.

Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank will today list a family of mainstream sector-based exchange traded funds in London, filling a vacuum that has existed since 2003. Barclays Global Investors listed nine sectors ETFs on the London Stock Exchange in 2000 but these were closed down three years later after attracting just $1bn of assets.