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Former bank bosses rehired

Wed, 19th Aug 2009 11:41

Banks have lost tens of billions of pounds over the past few years, so it's perhaps a little surprising that men held responsible for the credit crunch have found gainful employment at some of Britain's biggest companies.Back in May, Richard Burrows apologised for Bank of Ireland's £6.2bn full-year pre-tax loss and chose to stand down as governor of the bank."Accountability for these losses must be taken at the top," said Burrows, who eventually left the Irish company last month following a turbulent period which saw the bank relying on state funding to weather the downturn.But today, Lucky Strike cigarettes maker British American Tobacco picked the former chief executive of Irish Distillers, co-chief executive of Pernod Ricard and current non-executive director of Carlsberg as its new chairman.He'll take up his new role in November when current chairman Jan Du Plessis leaves to focus on chairing mining giant Rio Tinto.Other high profile bank chiefs, previously thought unemployable following the finance sector crash, have also got lucky.Andy Hornby, who led HBOS until his forced resignation in January following the takeover by Lloyds Banking, is now boss of private equity-owned Alliance Boots. HBOS lost £10.8bn in 2008.Sir Win Bischoff has also got a new job. The chairman of Schroders then of Citigroup has been confirmed as Lloyds' new chairman, replacing the outgoing Sir Victor Blank. City veteran Bischoff will take up his role at Lloyds, 43%-owned by the government, on 15 September. He was at Citi when the bank announced a fourth quarter loss of $8.29bn and 2008 deficit of $18.72bn. He left in February this year after chairing the bank since December 2007. It received a £326bn bail-out from the US Treasury in November last year after suffering huge losses due to the global financial crisis. Former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Fred Goodwin has not been as fortunate. The controversial Scot, in charge as the bank plunged to an annual loss of more than £24bn, has just returned from the French Riviera to his £3m Edinburgh home. There's talk of an image makeover for the 50-year-old who walked away with a £703,000 annual pension, later cut to £342,000, but it will probably take more than a creative image consultant to get Sir Fred back in the boardroom.
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17 Sep 2010 15:12

Sector movers: Balfour and Kier construct gains

On a mostly dull day for stocks, Balfour Beatty is giving the construction and materials sector a lift after a consortium including the contractor was named the preferred bidder for a £250m road scheme in Ireland. The road runs Gort and Tuam in the west of the Republic. Elsewhere in the sector, ho

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11 Aug 2010 08:05

Life no easier for Bank of Ireland

Bank of Ireland posted sharply higher underlying losses as bad debts continue to hurt the embattled Irish bank. Underlying losses in the half year to June rose to €1.25bn, up from €668m. Operating profits fell to €553m from €811m as UK-derived profits almost halved to €122m. Total income was 17%

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9 Jun 2010 07:32

Bank of Ireland get 94% take-up

Bank of Ireland has received a take-up of 94.6% for the rights issue required by the Irish government to boost its capital base. The bank received valid acceptances in respect of 2.97bn shares out of a total 3.14bn on offer, although the €1.72bn cash call is fully underwritten. It also has the bac

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17 May 2010 07:43

Bank of Ireland prices rights at €0.55

Bank of Ireland has set the price of the rights issue to repair its balance sheet at €0.55 with the Irish taxpayer likely to end up with a 36% stake once it completes. Terms of the issue are 3 new shares for every 2, with the price a 64% discount to the last closing price. It will raise €1.72bn. Th

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26 Apr 2010 07:26

Bank of Ireland to raise €3.4bn

Bank of Ireland could see the stake owned by the Irish State rise slightly to 36% after it unveiled a well-flagged €3.4bn capital raising. The proposals include an institutional placing to raise €0.5bn, a placing to the Irish government worth €1.04bn and a rights issue of up to €1.89bn. The fund

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22 Apr 2010 15:41

Bank of Ireland starts capital raising talks

Bank of Ireland has started discussions with a number of potential institutional investors with a view to assessing interest in a capital raise. "Any such transaction may be effected through a combination of a rights issue, a firm placing to institutional investors, a conversion of part of the St

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7 Apr 2010 17:14

Bank of Ireland pension proposals

Bank of Ireland says that it has come up with proposals to reduce the deficit on its defined benefits pension schemes. The bank says that the proposals have the support of its trade unions. Changes relating to future pension increases and how future salary increases qualify for pension will halve

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31 Mar 2010 07:49

Bank of Ireland agrees to €2.7bn capital raise

Bank of Ireland says the additional €2.7bn of capital the government has told it to raise will see it through the current recessionary crisis in Ireland as it revealed huge losses for the last nine months of 2009. "The bank believes raising this level of capital would result in its Equity Tier 1 an

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30 Nov 2009 16:32

London close: Shares drop again in late trading

London's blue chips recovered most of their losses in late afternoon trading and looked like they could be set for a positive finish before turning down again just before the close. Banks such as Lloyds Banking, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered remained nervous about the debt situation

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30 Nov 2009 14:36

London afternoon: Banks pare losses

Leading share prices are still holding steady at lower levels as investors await further developments from Dubai. Banks such as Lloyds Banking, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered remain nervous about the debt situation in emirate, though the morning's losses have been pared. HSBC defie

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30 Nov 2009 12:09

London midday: Share prices steady down

UK share prices are stabilising at lower levels after hopes of a continued rebound from the Dubai-inspired shake-out on Thursday were quashed by disappointing UK consumer confidence figures. Figures from market research firm Gfk NOP showed consumer sentiment fell to -17 from -13 in October. Middle

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30 Nov 2009 08:32

Bank of Ireland to join NAMA scheme

Bank of Ireland is to join the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) asset acquisition programme. The bank’s announcement follows hot on the heels of a similar announcement on Monday by its fellow Irish bank, Allied Irish Banks (AIB). As with AIB, the size of Bank of Ireland’s participation in t

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4 Nov 2009 08:18

Update: Bad debts haunt Bank of Ireland

A surge in bad debts sent Bank of Ireland deeper into the red in the first half of its current financial year. The bank, which is in the process of negotiation a deal to shunt €16bn of toxic loans into NAMA, the Irish government insurance scheme, posted losses of €979m in the six months to Septembe

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20 Oct 2009 12:32

Broker tips: Xstrata, Autonomy, Irish banks

The third quarter production update from Swiss miner Xstrata contained ‘some solid numbers’ but FinnCap thinks investors will be better off switching to one-time Xstrata merger target Anglo American. FinnCap reckons that Anglo American has a higher quality asset portfolio and should be able to outp

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20 Oct 2009 11:01

Broker snap: Nomura warms to Irish banks

Nomura Securities is prepared to take a chance on the battered Irish banking sector on the assumption that the government’s proposals for its bail-out vehicle, the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), do not undergo significant changes before implementation. The Japanese broker has upgraded Ban

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