UK Finance News

It appears that the proposed takeover of HBOS by rival bank Lloyds TSB is in danger of causing more problems than it sought to solve. Shares in HBOS fell in this mornings trading by 11.5% and Lloyds by 7.1% as experts realised that a merger would not solve the underlying problems of HBOS supposed under [...]

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The pound traded against the dollar today at its lowest in two years at $1.8514.
Sterling has also suffered further against the Euro which traded at 79.35 pence.
“Sterling is being hit on all sides at the moment with a broad-based dollar rebound and the realisation that the UK economy is facing a very difficult period,” said [...]

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Europe’s biggest bank HSBC posted their profits for the first half of the year, with the message from chairman Stephen Green that this has been a ”resilient performance in the most difficult market for several decades”.
The figures show a drop of 28% on the previous years posting, but the bank still managed to make £5.2billion on [...]

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Good news for gamblers but not for the investors in William Hill, is the report that Spain winning the Euro 2008 tournament cost the bookies up to £3million.
None the less William Hill still managed to announce profits for the first six month’s trading in 2008 of £145million.
The company say that profits are down by 10% [...]

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Reports in this weekends press suggest that only around 10% of HBOS shareholders participated in the banks rights issue to raise £4billion.
Experts are concerned that the take up may be so bad that it will leave underwriters Morgan Stanley & Dresdner with as much as £3.6bn worth of the banks stock.
HBOS had hoped to rally [...]

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