Other finance stories in brief
RBS finishes historic €12bn rights issue
Royal Bank of Scotland completed its historic £12 billion rights issue yesterday in spite of a fall in the bank's shares last week.
The bank confirmed at the opening yesterday that 95.11 per cent of the shares offered had been taken up by investors, leaving a "rump" of nearly 300 million shares with the underwriters - Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and UBS.
Later the remaining 299.4 million shares were placed with investors at 230p a share, raising an additional £688.6 million.
The success of the issue - the largest seen in European markets - followed an upturn in the bank's share price last week, which at the start of the week had fallen to 220p, dangerously close to the 200p price for the shares, offered to investors on an 11 for 18 basis. - (Financial Times service)
Diageo appoints John Kennedy
Guinness brewer Diageo has appointed John Kennedy to lead its Irish unit in succession to outgoing managing director Michael Ioakimides, who leaves the firm in September. US-born to Irish parents, Mr Kennedy is currently president and chief executive of Diageo's business in Canada.
Lehman shares plunge over loss
Shares in Lehman Brothers plunged yesterday as the bank disclosed a worse-than-expected $2.8 billion second-quarter loss and said it would raise $6 billion to bolster its position.
The embarrassing second-quarter loss, Lehman's first since going public in 1994, followed a decline in the value of its mortgage assets and losses on proprietary trading positions.
Lehman also suffered as hedging strategies designed to cushion its mortgage exposure went awry.
The investment bank said it had reduced its net leverage ratio, raising questions about its ability to continue to produce the profits that made it a Wall Street darling.
- (Financial Times service)
Windfall for Kenyan investors
THOUSANDS of first-time Kenyan investors received an overnight windfall yesterday as shares in the country's biggest mobile phone network surged by 60 per cent in their first day of trading.
Analysts said the massively oversubscribed Safaricom initial public offering - East Africa's largest - signalled a return to confidence for an economy rocked by ethnic clashes and political violence.
The sale attracted thousands of kiosk owners, farmers and artisans as well as experienced investors, aware that there was plenty of room for growth in a country where only about a third of the population has ever used a phone. Safaricom shares hit a high of eight shillings, well up from a sale price of five shillings.
Jump in pending US home sales
Hopes that bargain hunters might come to the rescue of the stricken US housing market rose yesterday when data showed that pending home sales unexpectedly increased by 6.3 per cent between March and April.
According to the National Association of Realtors, an index of pending home sales in the US rose to 88.2 in April - its highest reading since last October.
Economists were expecting a decline.
The higher sales occurred mainly in the midwest, the west and the south, suggesting that buyers are moving back into the housing market in areas that have suffered the steepest price declines. - (Financial Times service)
