British Treasury chief Alistair Darling will make a statement to parliament tomorrow about troubled mortgage lender Northern Rock PLC, a government official said yesterday.
The BBC reported yesterday that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has backed a plan for government financial support to enable a private sale of Northern Rock, Britain's biggest casualty of the global credit crisis.
The plan put forward by Goldman Sachs would require the British Treasury to provide tens of billions of dollars of support to Northern Rock for up to five years, the BBC said, without citing sources.
The proposal would probably reduce the chances of Northern Rock being nationalized by easing the pressure on private bidders caused by Northern Rock's huge debts and the difficulty of raising money.
Officials traveling with Brown in China declined to confirm the report, but one official said Darling would make a statement tomorrow. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.
Brown's government has made clear that a state takeover is an option if private buyers fail to raise enough funds to repay more than US$49 billion that Northern Rock has borrowed in emergency loans from the Bank of England.
Goldman proposes converting the Bank of England's loans to Northern Rock into bonds for sale. Those bonds would stay on the public balance sheet until conditions improve in financial markets when they would then be sold in small parcels very few months, the BBC said.
The bank's preferred private bidder, Virgin Chairman Richard Branson, expressed confidence this week that a private deal could be struck. Northern Rock is also considering other offers.
Shareholders oppose nationalization, which would leave them little or nothing of their investment.
A potential obstacle to the reported support plan could be a veto by the European Commission on the grounds that it violates rules against state aid. The EU has given the British government until the middle of next month to find a solution to the Northern Rock crisis.
Northern Rock's virtual collapse has had serious repercussions for Brown's government and the independent Bank of England.
Both have come under fire for their handling of the global credit crisis. Opposition lawmakers say nationalizing the lender would be hugely embarrassing for Britain's reputation as a financial center.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS