Thousands more jobs were axed today by some of Britain's leading companies, including Rolls-Royce, AstraZeneca and BAE Systems. In total, almost 4,000 posts are being cut from their global workforces, including about 600 in the UK.  read more »

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - As the financial crisis hit a climax in Belgium with the split-up of its largest bank Fortis in October, new clients were rushing to a small, "ecologically correct" bank.

Assured Guaranty ( AGO ) was a rare financial sector gainer Friday after the bond insurer scored what it calls a bargain deal to take over a big rival . Shares in Assured rose 15% after the company agreed to pay $722 million to take over Financial Security Assurance. Under the cash-and-stock deal, Assured — the financial guarantor backed by billionaire vulture investor Wilbur Ross – will more than double the size of its financial guarantee business, while paying less than half of FSA’s net worth, going by one measure. Assured Guaranty managing director Sabra Purtill called the deal a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to benefit from the fearful credit markets and the financial distress of FSA parent Dexia. The governments of France, Belgium and Luxembourg poured billions of dollars into Dexia in September to prevent its collapse — a move that prompted Dexia to seek buyers for FSA, just eight years after it bought the U.S. property for $2.6 billion. The purchase will give Assured Guaranty access to a strong earnings stream, says Purtill, at a time when credit market problems have led to a sharp decline in new business being written by financial guarantors. Assured Guaranty last week posted a $63 million third-quarter loss, as new business in the financial guaranty segment dropped 38% in gross written premium terms. What’s more, Assured won’t be on the hook for losses tied to FSA’s troubled financial products segment, which guaranteed billions of dollars worth of investment contracts backed by mortgage securities whose value has plunged. Those losses will be covered in part by FSA’s parent Dexia and by the European governments now backing Dexia. The deal is scheduled to close in the first quarter, assuming that rating agencies don’t conclude that the deal could hurt the companies’ credit ratings. S&P and Moody’s sent shares of Assured and Dexia plunging in July when it put Assured and FSA on watch for a possible downgrade. The third rating agency, Fitch, said Friday that doesn’t expect the deal to cause it to cut its ratings on FSA or Assured. Even if Moody’s does follow through with the one-notch downgrade implied in July’s ratings watch, Assured’s purchase of FSA could still go through, Purtill says, assuming Moody’s doesn’t say anything unfavorable about the deal itself. “There’s an option for both parties” to terminate the deal in the event the ratings agencies take issue with it, she said.  read more »

A U.S. District judge is deciding whether or not to delay the KBC Group of Belgium from asking for $43 million from Metro.

 read more »

For weeks now, financial meltdown and deepening recession notwithstanding, British journalists here have been forced to chase down EC officials and bombard them with the latest "news" from London about the former EU trade commissioner and his social acquaintance, Oleg Deripaska. Few, if any, facts have emerged. But that's hardly surprising because knowledge in UK political and journalistic circles about how the EU works is more akin to pig ignorance. You often have to shake your head in disbelief that it is more than 35 years since Britain joined the club. It matters not a jot how many times you explain that the "133 committee" of government and EC officials effectively decides on anti-dumping and trade issues.  read more »

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The deputy chief of Belgium's central bank warned shareholders challenging the state-led break up of troubled financial group Fortis that there was nothing more Belgium could do or could have done.

Euroclear Belgium announces the second phase of its Capitrack service in its ongoing efforts to streamline the securities dematerialisation process in Belgium. Capitrack Level 2 is targeted at all Belgian securities issuers to ease compliance with the Belgian dematerialisation law. Capitrack allows...

Marc Moulin, Belgian pop culture polymath and electropop pioneer, has died. Moulin was probably best known outside of Belgium for the electronic group Telex, founded in 1978 with Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers.  read more »

LEUVEN, Belgium (Reuters) - InBev shareholders
overwhelmingly voted in favour of buying U.S rival
Anheuser-Busch on Monday in a $52 billion deal to
create the global leader in brewing.