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Petrol chain wins ‘fake’ Coke injunction

Written on January 10, 2012 – 7:37 pm | by Michael Harris

The United Petroleum chain of service stations has won an injunction banning Today Tonight from airing a story which claims United is tricking customers by selling fake Coca-Cola.

The Victorian Supreme Court agreed to United’s legal bid to ban the show after hearing evidence that Seven’s Today Tonight had conducted an investigation of a number of its stores, including filming one customer with a hidden camera.

In ads on its website Today Tonight claimed that: ”consumers are being tricked into buying fake foreign products that are infiltrating our stores by appearing exactly the same as the big brands”.

Contact the reporter:

But United’s national merchandise manager, Mark Harris, said in an affidavit that the chain had clearly advised Today Tonight that it did not sell any fake or inferior Coke products.

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Tags: Injunction

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MF Global UK clients back KPMG in vote (Reuters)

Written on January 9, 2012 – 8:21 pm | by Stephanie Brodribb

KPMG held a meeting on Monday in London with over 800 MF Global UK clients and creditors at which these firms voted in favour of it continuing to work on unwinding the defunct broker, KPMG said on Tuesday.

“Both clients and creditors voted overwhelmingly in favour of our proposals, which include the expectation that we will be able to make an interim distribution of client monies within the next few weeks,” said Richard Heis, joint special administrator of MF Global UK.

The vote is a green light for the administrator to push ahead with the 4,500 clients and creditor claims KPMG said on Friday it had received for an estimated 1.2 billion of cash and assets.

KPMG told Reuters on Thursday it had recovered the majority of MF Global UK client monies and virtually all of their assets, valued jointly at about 1.2 billion, and hoped to start returning these to owners shortly.

Heis said he is initially talking with clients over the return of 30 million (46.4 million) of assets, in what would be the first returns to European customers since the U.S.

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Tags: Global Uk, Global Uk Clients, Uk Clients, Vote

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Saving E.U. Banks: Can the Dexia Bailout Stop the Fear?

Written on January 5, 2012 – 12:05 pm | by Ashley Johnson

It felt like déjà vu on Monday morning as France, Belgium and Luxembourg announced plans to rescue the embattled bank Dexia. Just as Dexia was set to become the first European bank to fall victim to the euro-zone debt crisis, the Belgian government stepped in to buy its retail operations for $5.4 billion as part of a wider bailout of the lender. At the same time, two French financial firms will take over Dexia’s economically important business providing financing to municipal government.

The deal was announced after weekend talks between Dexia officials and the French, Belgian and Luxembourg governments, all of which already have stakes in the bank. The three countries said they would also provide a total of $122 billion worth of guarantees for the bank over a period of ten years. Dexia itself will create a “bad bank” into which some of its toxic assets will be transferred.

But if there is something familiar about the deal, that’s because it repeats a scenario that played out at the end of 2008, when the financial crisis was already prompting bank bailouts elsewhere in Europe. T

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Tags: Banks Dexia, Dexia

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Japanese authorities raid Olympus

Written on January 2, 2012 – 3:34 am | by Michael Harris

Tokyo (CNN) — The Japanese authorities on Wednesday raided offices of Olympus, the camera and medical instruments maker that is embroiled in a vast accounting scandal, the company said.

An investigation team from the Tokyo prosecutor’s office, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the Japanese Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission visited Olympus premises, according to Tsuyoshi Kitada, a spokesman for Olympus. He declined to give further details on the raid.

The drama surrounding Olympus began after the company fired its chief executive, Michael Woodford, in October and he came forward as a whistleblower on a decades-long cover-up by the company of $1.7 billion in losses.

At the height of the resulting crisis, the stock value of Olympus fell more than 75%. Three other top executives lost their jobs in the wake of the controversy.

Officials in Japan, the United States and Britain are investigating the possibility of criminal wrongdoing at the company.

Tags: Japanese Authorities, Olympus

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Stock Futures Extend Rally on Euro Hopes

Written on January 1, 2012 – 3:58 pm | by Ashley Johnson

Stock-index futures pointed to more gains for Wall Street after a relatively strong Italian bond auction helped instill some confidence that European leaders may be able to contain the debt crisis.

Today’s Markets

As of 8:15 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 40 points to 11,538, SP 500 futures gained 6 points to 1,197 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 5 points to 2,226.

The markets zoomed higher on Monday, marking at least a temporary end to what was a powerful, multi-week selloff for Wall Street. As has been the case in many sessions prior, traders have been focused on Europe’s debt crisis.

Italy sold €7.5 billion at a bond auction on Tuesday, which is at the high range of the €5 to €8 billion target, indicating relatively strong demand. However, the country was forced to pay yields that were both well above what it had paid in prior auctions, and considerably higher than the 7% level on numerous maturities. The h

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Tags: Euro, Euro Hopes

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