Supermarket giant Asda has today announced like-for-like sales (excluding fuel) declined by 0.4% in the second quarter. The fall was attributed to the tough austerity measures introduced by the Government, which has hit consumers, according to Asda. “Asda’s customers are facing recently announced tax increases and cuts in Government spending,” it said in a statement. [...]
Barclays Capital, the investment division of banking giant Barclays, is to slash around 400 back-office jobs in the US, Europe and Asia, a source familiar with the matter has said. The job losses come following Barclays’ expansion of its investment-banking unit, driven by the bank’s purchase of Lehman Brothers North America operations at the height [...]
Spanish banking giant Santander has agreed to purchase Swedish bank SEB’s German business for €555 million (£466.5 million).
SEB, which is Sweden’s third-largest bank in terms of market capitalisation, acquired its German retail banking business ten years ago and had planned to sell it in 2008. However, the sale was delayed due the global financial crisis.
Meanwhile, [...]
Supermarket giant Asda has today announced it is to buy the 193 UK stores from Danish discount retailer Netto, in a deal worth £778 million.
Netto, currently owned by Dansk Supermarked, has operated in the UK since 1990. The company said it now plans to concentrate on expanding in Scandinavia and Northern Europe.
Meanwhile, Asda said that [...]
US investment bank JPMorgan is to fully buy Cazenove, the UK broker, in a £1 billion ($1.7 billion) deal.
The deal comes as JPMorgan bought half of Cazenove in 2004 ago and created the JPMorgan Cazenove joint venture. It paid £700 million for the 50% stake.
Under the original terms set five years ago, the US investment [...]
Berkshire Hathaway, the investment group controlled by respected US billionaire investor, Warren Buffett, has recovered from its poor performance in 2008 and announced a surge in net profit.
The group said net profit was $3.2 billion (£1.9 billion) in the three months to September, compared to $1.1 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Seventy-nine year [...]