Topic: E-Business – European Factors — Shares set to rise after Wall St rally – Reuters

LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – European shares were set to rise on Wednesday, after a rally late on Tuesday in the United States, where Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said nationalisation of big banks was not at hand. The consumer goods group reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 379 million euros, slightly better than analyst expectations of 365 million euros. Two of Britain’s biggest banks were engaged in last-minute haggling with the Treasury over the terms of a 500 billion pound plan to insure toxic assets, as Alistair Darling urged them to “clean up their balance sheets and rebuild for the future,” the Financial Times said. M&G, the fund management arm of Prudential is moving into the corporate lending maRet with a multi-billion pound fund designed to exploit the gap left by banks in their retreat from the business of lending to companies, The Times said. read more

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