According to a recent statement from the Office for National Statistics, the state of public finances in the UK, are even worse than that of Greece. The latest figures on government borrowing show that in January there was a net shortfall of £4.3 billion, which is much higher than even the most pessimistic of forecasts. January is traditionally the month where a healthy balance of payments is the norm. If the trend continues, the UK will be looking at a deficit of £180 billion for 2010, equivalent to 12.8 per cent of GDP, which will even beat Greece into second place in the "whose going skint fastest" race.

The reasons given for the UK’s poor performance included considerably reduced earnings in the financial sector as well as general weaknesses in the economy. These factors combined to push cash receipts down by 9 per cent overall compared with last year tax, while public spending was up by 15 per cent up in January, driven higher by the rise in unemployment benefits.

The only positive piece of news coming out of the report was that the total national debt carried by Britain remains lower than Greece as well as the fellow financially challenged European countries, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Spain.

HSBC have announced a 24 per cent fall in profits for 2009. Their profits fell to £4.65 billion ($7.1 billion) with the main factor being increased loan impairment charges, which largely cancelled out the bank’s strong investment banking performance. Undeterred, HSBC have announced that they would be paying out a total of £4.6 billion in pay and bonuses to staff at their profit earning investment banking division. HSBC shares fell almost 6 per cent to 679 pence on the news.

After months of speculation, retailer to the upper echelons Liberty, have finally confirmed their plans for the sale and leaseback of their landmark mock-Tudor flagship store situated on Great Marlborough Street in London’s West End. The company, which was founded in 1876, and are partially owned by the MWB Group, announced that they had issued instructions to put the building up for sale, and it is expected to fetch around £40 million. A few of the London based property owners are believed to be interested in acquiring the property for lease back to Liberty, but are likely to face strong competition from overseas. A spokesman for Liberty announced that that turnover for the store in 2009 had jumped by 16 per cent.

Despite winning the Carling Cup Final at the weekend, all is not well at Manchester United, but not on the playing field, instead in the boardroom.

The problem is that United, owned by the Glazer family, are running a very high level of debt, some £716.5 million, a fact that has caused much discomfort and loads of speculation among their huge band of supporters. So much so that a group of city financiers, under the title the "Red Knights" have met to discuss the feasibility of setting up what will be a possible hostile takeover of the club. An immediate response from the Glazers was that Manchester United is not for sale."

However, it may not be that easy, as United’s owners are facing a two-pronged attack over their control of the club with the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust (Must) running a campaign to bring about a change of ownership, which might even involve fans boycotting the clubs matches, and with a 76,000 seater stadium to fill, that may well be too bitter a pill for the Glazers to absorb.

The fact that the British general election appears to be getting closer and is now expected in May is having a very negative effect on Sterling. The currency took another pounding on foreign exchange markets, with the possibility that the election may bring of a hung parliament looking an increasing possibility. The uncertainty has caused the pound to drop nearly four cents, reaching a low of $1.4984 at one point before rallying to close $1.5056. The pound also closed at 1.1044 against the Euro.

On the FTSE 100 supermarket chain Tesco were among the FTSE 100’s top performers as America’s second-richest man Warren Buffett raised his stake in the company. Share values rose by 3.2 per cent to 433 pence, after Mr Buffett announced to his Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that their holding had increased to 3 per cent. Berkshire Hathaway has been gradually raising their stockholding in Tesco since 2006 when the retailer announced their plans to enter the US market. Since making their first stock purchase, the American conglomerate is believed to have become Tesco’s sixth largest shareholder.

As the markets closed for the day, the FTSE 100 was up 134 points to 5,484.06.

According to Lawrence Summers, head of the White House National Economic Council, the impact of Barack Obama’s $800 billion fiscal stimulus is yet to be fully felt, and its impact will increasingly be sensed over the coming months. Summers has praised the fiscal stimulus as being an enormous achievement and the many projects that the stimulus funded throughout the country are running exactly as planned.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to creep upwards. It rose 80 points to close on 10,405.98 while the NASDAQ Composite jumped by 42 points to close on 2,280.79.

According to date from the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (BEPA), global trade in goods has continued its rapid recovery from its huge fall in 2009, when the recession was at its peak. Data from BEPA also indicate that the world trading system suffered very little permanent damage to global trade has been done to by the financial crisis. The bureau’s composite index reported that the volume of goods trade worldwide rose at 4.8 per cent in December, making for the most rapid monthly increase in December for any year in its 19-year history, with three monthly index, traditionally less volatile, also rising by a record rate in the fourth quarter of last year, finishing six percent higher than third quarter.

On the other side of the World, things are looking better. So much better that for the fourth time since October, Australia’s central bank has seen fit to raise their interest rates, as it seeks to cool its growing economy.

The increase, from 3.75%, to 4% was widely expected by economists.

Australia was not only the only major economy to avoid recession, but also the first to raise interest rates from half century lows as the economic crisis eased. Australia’s ability to avoid the worst of the global turndown was partially attributed to increased demand for its commodities from China.

However Australia’s boom times may be slowing down with the news that China’s manufacturing activity shrunk a little in February. However economists rushed to point out that while China’s recovery faced some flat periods, it was expected that industrial activity would continue to grow in the coming months.

After the massive earthquake that struck Chile, copper prices jumped more than five per cent on early trading on Monday. Chile is the world’s largest producer of the red metal, and the earthquake has severely disrupted mining operations in the country, consequently triggering a spree of panic buying in the major commodity centres.

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Tags: Bank, Banking, Barack Obama, British Economy, British Pound, Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, Carling Cup Final, Credit Crunch, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, Glazer family, HSBC, Lawrence Summers, Manchester United, Money, Money Management, Money Markets, MWB Group, NASDAQ, Office for National Statistics, Stocks and shares, Tesco, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, Wall Street, Warren Buffett, White House National Economic Council

According to a recent survey conducted by the Confederation for British Industry (CBI), around a third of the UK financial services companies were said to be more optimistic about their situation and that of the sector in general. This makes for the third consecutive quarter that confidence has risen in the financial services industry, making for a 100% increase since the middle of 2009. The increased optimism comes despite slightly weaker volumes being recorded than forecast in the fourth quarter, coupled with some fears that business will contract in the first quarter of this year.

There were smiling faces all around as retailer House of Fraser delivered a trading update on Monday showing a new record for festive sales. Signs that the UK consumer was shrugging off the recession came as the privately-owned department store chain showed sales rising by 7.1 percent in the eight weeks to Jan. 2nd as well as Boxing Day sales figures that were up climbed 27 percent on 2008.

Less happy were the management team at, Tesco, who according to a global study has dropped to fourth place in a league table of the world’s biggest retailers. Tesco dropped one place pushed down by the German retail group, Metro. Sales figures for Tesco for the six weeks to January 9 is expected to report like-for-like sales growth of about three percent for the period.

Some good news for those UK householders whose boilers are rated at G level or lower. In addition to the two combined subsidies from the UK government and British Gas that is liable to cover around a third of the estimated cost of buying and installing a new boiler, British Gas has just added a further £452 in cost savings for those who will be replacing their boiler under the scheme which will come in two forms.

• A set of comprehensive radiator controls for the home or office valued at £248.
• Homecare 200 repairs cover for the boiler costing £204.

Anyone who is liable to receive these subsidies, which in general should include anyone who has a boiler more than 15 years old may be eligible to receive these grants and subsidies, contact British Gas on 0845 074 5991 for a free consolation or click http://www.britishgas.co.uk/yourboiler

Spanish banking group Santander has announced the launch of a marketing campaign aimed at bringing its UK brands under one name. Santander will invest around £30 million pounds refurbishing the 1,000 branches across the UK coming under their label as well as printing new product literature for the Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester banks. To add some glamour, formula one racing driver Lewis Hamilton has been chosen to publicise the company’s new image at a Santander branch to be opened in central London.

Manchester United FC have announced their plans to mount a bond issue intended to raise £500 million in order to refinance the club’s mounting debts.

The announcement came as the club announced pre-tax profits of £48.2 million for the year to 30 June 2009, compared with a loss of £21.4 million last year. The profit was swollen by the £80 million fee received by the club from Real Madrid who purchased the services of Cristiano Ronaldo during the close season. According to information issued by the club’s holding company Red Football Ltd, group turnover rose to £278.5 million from £256.2 million in 2008. Although Red Football disclosed no total debt figure was announced, estimates have it at around £700 million.

British Land has unveiled plans to manage a £300 million pound buy-to-let fund being launched by Charles Russell, the prominent UK law firm. The fund has been established to acquire prime residential real estate in London. British Land will also take a small stake in the fund as the property group rapidly expands its residential business, marking British Land’s first residential investments since selling the majority of its portfolio in 2006.

Revenue at IT services group Computacenter remained weak for 2009, largely due to a shortage of large infrastructure projects. With this factor taken this factor into account, the company instituted a substantial cost-cutting programme which look likely to see them beat profit forecasts for 2009, which could be close to £50 million pounds. On the news shares in Computacenter rose 17.7 pence to 309 pence on Tuesday.

The pound continued its recovery above the dollar in mid week trading, while moving up slightly against the Euro.

• Dollar 1.6207
• Euro 1.118

On Tuesday the FTSE 100 Index fell 0.7 percent, to 5,498.71.

Meanwhile it has been announced that during one of the biggest turn-downs in US financial history the US Federal Reserve announce that they made a profit of $52.1 billion (£32.2 billion) in 2009, marking a rise of 47% over the previous year, allowing them to pay a record $46.1 billion to the US Treasury last year.

The $46.1 billion was the largest amount ever paid by the central bank since it was creation in 1914, and was largely thanks to the Fed’s attempts to support the financial system throughout the ongoing financial crisis.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Tuesday up slightly, nine points to 10,627. The NASDAQ dropped to close on 2,282.

The recently formed US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) is to hold their first public hearing on Wednesday.

The 10-member panel was established by Congress to examine the causes of the 2008 US financial crisis. The committee will examine the causes of the crisis, and are scheduled to hear testimony on the current state of the crisis from a cross section of private and public sector leaders.

Witnesses will include top executives from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.

Findings and the report of the panel are due to be presented to Congress and President Barack Obama by 15 December.

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Tags: Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, Bank, Bank of America, Banking, Barack Obama, boiler, Bradford & Bingley, British Economy, British Gas, British Land, British Pound, CBI, Charles Russell, Computacenter, Confederation for British Industry, Credit Crunch, Cristiano Ronaldo, Currency, Dow Jones, Economy, FCIC, Financial News, FTSE, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Lewis Hamilton, Manchester United, Metro, Money, Money Markets, Morgan Stanley, NASDAQ, Real Madrid, Recession, Red Football Ltd, Retail, Santander, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Tesco, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, UK retail, US Federal Reserve, US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, US Treasury

Despite the recession that has gripped the UK for almost twelve months, and the less than buoyant year that preceded it, statistic produced by England’s Premier League football clubs show that despite it all, there will always be a place in their budget to follow their favorite club. Figures recently produced show that attendances are actually on the up since the start of the season, providing further evidence that the recession does not necessarily apply to soccer.

The first few weeks of the season has witnessed clubs managing to fill their stadiums to an average of 90 per cent stadium capacity, in line with previous seasons, while have actually succeeded in drawing larger crowds than season 2008/2009.

The increased attendance rates may largely be driven by the decision of most of the Premier League clubs to reduce season ticket prices, as a gesture to their loyal supporters. Reductions in income from this source have been more than offset by other revenue streams with the principal source of income for many clubs these days coming through sponsorship and global TV rights. Recent £20 million pound annual shirt sponsorship deals won by both Liverpool and Manchester United during the summer were achieved despite many of the large companies walking away from sponsorship deals. AIG, long term shirt sponsors for Manchester United were forced to wind up their shirt sponsorship deal at the end of this season, only to be rapidly replaced by American insurance giant Aon. Another sign of better times ahead was the recent agreement by Barclays Bank to continue to sponsor the Premier League until at least the end of the 2012/13 season.

The top Premier League clubs also draw considerable revenue taking part in the UEFA Champions League, where they can earn between £23 million to £46 million from the association’s broadcasting and marketing revenue pool depending on how far the go in the Champions League or Europa League.

The Premier League also succeeded in securing a 4 per cent increase in its UK broadcast rights value when it got British Sky Broadcasting to pay £1.6 billion for the rights to five out of six TV packages for the three years to 2012-13 with an increase in the value of its overseas rights for these seasons still being negotiated.

With these kinds of figures flying around it is little wonder that the leading Premier League clubs can afford to subsidize ticket prices and enjoy that special atmosphere of having a full stadium.

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Tags: AIG, Aon, Bank, Barclays, Barclays Bank, British Economy, Champions League, Credit Crunch, Economy, Europa League, Financial News, Liverpool, Manchester United, Money, Premier League, Premier League clubs, Premier League football, Recession, Retail, sponsorship, TV rights, UEFA, UEFA Champions League, UK Banks, UK Economy

Signs that the gravy ridden sponsorship train may be leaving the station were very much in evidence in the United Kingdom yesterday. First of all when the news, albeit expected, hit that the insurance giant American International Group (AIG) will be unable to renew its shirt sponsorship deal with Manchester United world club soccer champions. The sponsorship deal is due to be renewed in May of 2010. The cash strapped group will have no option but to pull out of the arrangement. Not only that, they are also trying to reduce any costs that the can in the current sponsorship deal.

The current four-year $100 million deal provided AIG with tremendous exposure not only in the UK but throughout the World, and the disappearance of their logo from the manly chests of United’s global superstars may yet cost them business, and a lot of it. When you consider that AIG is currently being milk fed by the US Federal Banks to the tune of around $150 billion, then a four year sponsorship deal costing a mere $100 and over four years still seems like a worthwhile investment.

Yet it may herald a turning point for the golden years of sports sponsorship may be over, if only temporarily. UK soccer clubs, from the largest to the smallest depend on sponsorship for around one third of their income, and Manchester United with some of the highest paid soccer superstars in the World on their books will certainly miss that AIG income if they do not replace them.

It is possible to say that all of the Premier League has become slaves to sponsorship, with the financial downturn seeing more and more fans finding it difficult to justify as well as to raise the ticket money to attend league games. With Premier League sponsors Barclay complaining of a severe case of burst balls, it is difficult to imagine them being able to continue their sponsorship activities for the coming season.

Meanwhile Manchester United, who till now have always managed to fill Old Trafford to its 74,000 capacity for every game, as well as having a global following that is the envy of every other club in the World, have been no slouches in their moves at finding a replacement sponsor, and are prepared to go truly international to look for them

AIG are obviously keen to get off the hook, and if a sponsor can be found for season 2009/2010 they would be prepares to forego the privilege of sponsoring for that season.

Apparently very interested are the financial services and real estate Indian based company Sahara who already claim to have received an “elaborate” sponsorship proposal from the club.

Money rich Sahara, who currently act as sponsors the Indian cricket team and are no strangers to sports sponsorship. Other possible suitors for the Manchester United sponsorship deal being suggested are Saudi Telecom, British insurance company Prudential among others.

Not only Soccer has been hit by the sponsorship drain. Even more glamorous and hungry for cash Formula One motor racing has also been hard hit, with sponsors dropping like flies.

The exaltation surrounding the UK’s hosting of the 2012 is becoming increasingly short lived as the credit crunch also appears to be taking its toll on financing even the most basic aspects of staging the games.

Olympics minister Tessa Jowell has been forced to go way over budget by releasing £460m to enable construction of the Olympic Village and media centre to go ahead. It was hoped that a sponsor could be found to finance this stage of the building, but when none was forthcoming, the Olympic committee were forced to dig deep so that building could go ahead.

Fears are that future building projects will also suffer the same fate, and that the Olympic fund will go well over the 9.3 billion pound budget as sponsorships and future property deals are very thin on the ground.

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Tags: American International Group, Barclay, Financial News, Manchester United, Premier League, Soccer, Tessa Jowell