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Analyst Nick Caley told clients: "To us, it looks like QBE could report an FY06 margin of 19 per cent, even if the 2006 US hurricanes are as costly as 2005." THE amount of money lent for personal use rose 3.6 per cent in January to $6.35 billion. The rise was caused by increases in both re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Australian (Canberra, A.C.T.)
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Canberra, A.C.T Nationwide News Pty Ltd 15.03.2006
Subjects
Caley, Nick
Cloney, John
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Summary:Analyst Nick Caley told clients: "To us, it looks like QBE could report an FY06 margin of 19 per cent, even if the 2006 US hurricanes are as costly as 2005." THE amount of money lent for personal use rose 3.6 per cent in January to $6.35 billion. The rise was caused by increases in both revolving credit commitments (up 6.5 per cent) and fixed lending commitments (up 0.3 per cent). Total commercial finance rose 0.5 per cent to $31.97 billion, caused by a rise in fixed lending commitments (up 2.4 per cent), which was more than offset by a fall in revolving credit commitments (down 3 per cent). Housing finance for owner-occupiers fell 1.1 per cent to $12.8 billion, while lease finance rose 41.2 per cent to $799 million. The value of purchase of dwellings for rent or resale rose by 0.6 per cent in January, after an increase of 2 per cent in December. MERCK unveiled a E14.6 billion ($23.8 billion) cash bid for rival Schering on Monday. Schering rejected the unsolicited offer of E77 a share, a 15 per cent premium to its closing share price on Friday, saying the bid undervalued the company. But Merck said it would go ahead with a hostile offer regardless of Schering's board views.
ISSN:1038-8761