cityam 2011-03-30

www.cityam.com Issue 1,353 Wednesday 30 March 2011 FREE KAUPTHING NET WIDENS SFO SWOOPS ON LUXEMBOURG BUSINESSES P2 FSA DROPS PROBE INTO GARTMORE’S RAMBOURG STAR FUND MANAGER IN CLEAR P 7 BUSINESS WITH PERSONALITY capitalspreads.com Spread betting and CFD trading carry a high level of risk to your capital and you can lose more than your initial deposit. Capital Spreads is a trading name of London Capital Group Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and a member of the London Stock Exchange. Registered address: 12 Appold St, London, EC2A 2AW. Registered number: 3218125 anytime, anytrade, anywhere Apply now at capitalspreads.com Capital Spreads app for Android Capital Spreads app for Android FTSE 100 ▲5,932.17 +27 .68 DO W ▲12,279.01 +81.13 NASDAQ ▲2,756.89 +26.21 £/$ 1.60 unc £/¤ t1.13 -0.01 ¤/$ 1.41 unc Certified Distribution 03/01/11 till 30/01/11 is 97,465 Crisis talks called over Topaz float BANKING advisers to the £300m flota- tion of Topaz Energy and Marine are meeting with the management of the group today amid fears that the flota- tion might be dropped. The Dubai-based oilfield services group Topaz is a subisidiary of Omani group Renaissance Services and its proposed share listing has inevitably been hit by concerns over Middle Eastern stability. “No decision has yet been made,” said one person close to the situation, “but clearly there are jitters.” Renaissance shares fell yesterday by 6.6 per cent on speculation that the IPO could be delayed. Today’s meeting might conclude without a definite decision on whether to press ahead and advisers could insist on changes to pricing or structure to help push the deal through. In recent weeks the Danish group ISS pulled a big issue and Lagardere delayed an IPO of Canal Plus, citing concerns over the Japanese earth- quake. The main banking advisers to Topaz are JP Morgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. JP Morgan is also currently marketing the flota- tion of Edwards, a vacuum technolo- gy firm. If the Topaz float does go ahead, the firm should have a market capi- talisation of more than £1bn, which would put it in the FTSE 250. The group declined to comment. BY DAVID HELLIER CAPITAL MARKETS ▲ George O sborne ye sterda y defen ded his t ax on oil com panies, which Sta toil blamed for it s decision to halt a k ey project Picture : PA THE CHANCELLOR was forced to defend his surprise tax raid on oil firms yesterday after energy giant Statoil announced that it was suspend- ing a $10bn (£6.2bn) investment in the North Sea in response to the hike. Statoil, Norway’s top fuel producer, was due to hire contractors in the next few weeks to work on the Mariner and Bressay fields, the biggest development opportunity left in the North Sea with 3.5bn barrels of oil equiva- lent. But a spokesperson for the firm said yesterday: “We believed that we were able to develop [the fields] but with these proposed tax increases we need to reconsider the project.” Statoil was due to produce its first oil at the site in 2016. Around 640m barrels of crude oil are expected to be extracted from the sites – carrying a value of tens of billions of pounds at today’s price of $115.34 a barrel. George Osborne hiked the tax on UK oil profits from 20 to 32 per cent in last week’s Budget, fuelling fears that jobs would be lost and exploration halted, forcing the UK to rely more on imported energy. Some older oil fields now have a tax rate of 81 per cent. The government hopes to raise more than £10bn over the course of the current Parliament, to fund an immediate 1p per litre fuel duty cut and a fuel stabiliser to cushion TAX RAID HALTS NORTH SEA DRILL BY MARION DAKERS ENERGY motorists from rising oil prices. Osborne told yesterday’s Treasury select committee: “I don’t think it is possible to actively consult a business sector on a tax rise in a Budget. I think that would have been very difficult.” He added: “No industry is going to welcome with open arms a tax rise on it and I would be very surprised if they had, but I would suggest that the current oil price and the forecast oil price certainly makes it very profitable to invest in the North Sea.” Osborne said the government will get in touch with Statoil to talk about the tax raid. Industry body Oil & Gas UK said it was not surprised by Statoil’s decision. “The tax change has damaged the industry’s confidence and trust in the tax regime and that trust will take a long time to rebuild,” said economics director Mike Tholen. Oil & Gas UK also contradicted guid- ance from the Office of Budget Responsibility, whose chairman Robert Chote told the select committee yesterday that the tax increase would have “no significant impact” on investments, adding that Statoil had merely postponed its final decision rather than the actual project. Osborne added that the Organisation for Economic Co-opera- tion and Development (OECD) has praised his Budget as “pav[ing] the way for a stronger recovery”.

cityam 2011-03-30

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