Friday Papers: KKR snaps up nine US Goldman traders - money news

Financial Times

* KKR, one of the world’s biggest private equity groups, has hired a top team of traders from Goldman Sachs’ proprietary trading desk to set up a new hedge fund - the group’s first.

* Credit Suisse posted sharply lower earnings in the third quarter as clients remained on the sidelines amid volatile markets; pre-tax profits at the Swiss group’s investment bank slumped to SFr395 million ($410 million), down 50% from the second quarter, while revenues declined by 17% to SFr3.42 billion.

* Assets under management at Henderson grow to £59.2 billion after favourable market and currency movements offset slight outflows in its funds.

* Britain’s borrowing costs have dropped to the lowest in a generation; benchmark five-year gilt yields fell to 1.43% on Thursday.

* George Osborne has insisted he will stick to his £81 billion plan to cut public spending even if Britain’s economy starts to stutter.

* Net lending to British businesses turned positive in August for the first time since February 2010, according to a report on Thursday from the Bank of England.

* BAE Systems says that the cuts in the UK’s armed forces will have a ‘modest’ effect on the company.

* French trade unions have called for further strikes and mass demonstrations against landmark pension reforms.

* US bank regulators have eased their tough stance on dividend hikes and share buy-backs as the sector’s fortunes have improved, paving the way for the return of billions of dollars in capital to shareholders, say executives and official.

*  Anglo Irish Bank is offering holders of some of its outstanding junior debt to swap their notes, which are due for repayment in coming years, for new Irish government guaranteed bonds; the move will lead to losses of at least 80 per cent of face value for some bondholders.

* The judge in the trial of Lehman Brothers’ suit against Barclays made clear that he had not approved a series of changes to the deal, though he conceded that did not necessarily matter.