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A report on 3 August 2000 has revealed that there has been a 2.2% increase in consumer price inflation for July. This has come as a blow to the government of Turkey which is aiming to bring last year’s figure of 60% down to 25% this year, with a view to being in single figures by 2003.
Financial Times
04/08/2000
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There were worries that recent strong rates of growth would lead to the Bank of England raising the rate of interest, but following yesterday’s announcement, (which held the rate constant at 6% for the sixth month in a row), there are hopes that the next move in interest rates will be downward rather than upward. Ian Peters, of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce has called on the Bank of England to “resist further rate rises unless there is clear evidence of significant inflationary pressures.”
Financial Times
04/08/2000
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There has been a sharp increase in the money market rates in Sri Lanka during the last month and a half which has seen a rise from a stable average of 15% per annum to 17%. This instability has had an impact on the Sri Lankan factoring industry in terms of a correspondingly sharp increase in the cost of funds for factors.
BCR Publishing
04/08/2000
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Euro Sales Finance plc, the pan European factoring and invoice discounting company, has reported record profits for the year ended 30 June 2000, following their expansion into the French and German markets. The following table illustrates this impressive growth:
03/08/2000
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After a year long struggle for control over Poland’s BIG Bank Gdanski, Banco Comercial Portugues (BCP) has succeeded in taking a majority of seats on the Polish bank’s advisory board. Deutsche Bank had launched a hostile takeover bid for BIG earlier in the year, but sold its holding in the Polish bank to BCP following the threat of lawsuits from BIG’s other shareholders. Following the resignation of nine of the members of BIG’s supervisory board (announced on 31 July), three further seats were gained by BCP.
Financial Times and Newswire
03/08/2000
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The Serious Fraud Office have issued a press release stating that they are to conduct an investigation into the business activities of the trade finance group Versailles. The decision follows an inquiry into Versailles in 1999 by the Department of Trade and Industry. The information provided to the SFO following this inquiry has been deemed sufficient reason for the investigation to be authorised. The SFO press release states that there is a possibility of “serious and complex fraud at Versailles.”
Serious Fraud Office
03/08/2000
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After last week’s British Virgin Islands hearing, a court ruling has been made that promises to reveal more about the reasons behind the collapse of the trade finance group, Versailles, in January of this year. The group of investors that funded Versailles are effectively split into two camps, one championed by Mr Moseley and the other by Carl Cushnie, Versailles’ chief executive and majority shareholder.
02/08/2000
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Two members of the group of wealthy individuals that helped fund the trade finance group Versailles (which went into receivership in January), have launched a court action in an attempt to recover their money and to discover the reasons for the group’s failure. Accountants found that the disgraced company had logged a series of false transactions estimated to amount to Ј69m. The claim has been made in a court in the British Virgin Islands. Versailles’ chief executive, Carl Cushnie, has tried and failed to have the action thrown out of court.
02/08/2000
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According to The Guardian, Versailles, the trade finance company which went into receivership in January 2000, owing its banks approximately Ј60m, is known to have made deals totalling Ј495,209 with Carl Cushnie Jr, the son of the company’s founder.
02/08/2000
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Two members of the group of wealthy individuals that helped fund Versailles, the trade finance group which collapsed in January, will go to court in the British Virgin Islands on Thursday 27th July. They are hoping to recover their investments and to discover the reasons for the group’s collapse. It is understood their plan will be opposed by representatives of Versailles’ chief executive, Carl Cushnie, who will argue for an alternative proposal supported by the majority of the investor group.
02/08/2000
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Two members of the group of wealthy individuals that helped fund the trade finance group Versailles (which went into receivership in January), have launched a court action in an attempt to recover their money and to discover the reasons for the group’s failure. Accountants found that the disgraced company had logged a series of false transactions estimated to amount to Ј69m. The claim has been made in a court in the British Virgin Islands. Versailles’ chief executive, Carl Cushnie, has tried and failed to have the action thrown out of court.
02/08/2000
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The Canadian Factoring Association was brought into being to lobby the government and the Export Development Corporation (EDC). In the last five years, the government-owned EDC was granted the ability to offer domestic credit insurance as an enhancement to their export insurance programmes. There was a clause, which enabled them to handle a client's domestic business if more than 10% of that client's foreign receivables were covered by the EDC.
01/08/2000
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The factoring market in Germany has remained fairly steady in the last few months, with DG Bank continuing their dominance of the market. It remains to be seen whether Eurofactors will live up to their potential and stir up the market. The most significant development in recent months, according to Ulrich Bongartz, Managing Director of Bertelsmann Distribution GmbH, is the competition which is hotting up for filling the financing gap in an business to business transaction on the internet between two companies, previously unknown to each other.
01/08/2000
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There have been unprecedented numbers of mergers and acquisitions in the US factoring industry in the last 12 months, with CIT buying two smaller factors and GMAC's purchase of the Bank of New York. As yet, the consequences of this market consolidation are unclear. John Heffer, President of HSBC Business Credit (USA) Inc., laments the fact that there are no reliable industry statistics as very few factors publish their volume figures.
01/08/2000
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The government has succeeded in reducing interest rates to between 25-35%, which means that factors are having to operate under very small margins.
Eight banks have been amalgamated into the Central Turkish Fund, which will mean at least five or six factoring companies will disappear from the market. These factoring subsidiaries of banks are dormant at the moment and if they have not already ceased trading, will soon do so. As a result, the Turkish market is going through an interesting period of transition.
01/08/2000
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