Photobox boss Stan Laurent: The man driving Moonpig’s growth story September 14, 2014 By the end of April, it became clear to Stan Laurent that London’s doors were effectively closed to new consumer-facing internet companies. There had just been the perfect storm of disastrous market debuts from Just Eat and AO World, along with two profit warnings from Asos that triggered a sell-off in shares of fellow fashion [...]
City Moves for 15 September 2014 | Who’s switching jobs September 14, 2014 Linklaters Stuart Bedford has been appointed London head of corporate at the law firm. Previously head of Linklaters’ corporate practice in Asia, he has a background in private and public mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and capital raisings. Bedford succeeds Sarah Wiggins. Lend Lease The property and infrastructure group has appointed Rob Heasman as project [...]
Best of the Brokers for 15 September 2014 September 14, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com JD WETHERSPOON Investec has kept its “buy” rating, but upped the target price to 885p from 870p. The broker says full year results were just ahead of expectations, and that cash generation remains strong, while the current year has started well with a [...]
London Report: Scotland and MPC minutes the main focus for the City September 14, 2014 ALL EYES will be on the result of Thursday’s Scottish referendum, with market watchers keen to know whether or not the 300-year-old union will continue. As far as more normal risk events are concerned, the main one will be Wednesday’s release of the latest set of MPC meeting minutes. That will be complemented by the [...]
Wall St The Week Ahead: Fed meeting in spotlight September 14, 2014 THE RECENT wobbly stretch in both stocks and bonds may persist for the short term if the US Federal Reserve this week lives up to expectations and signals the days of near-zero interest rates are numbered. Anxiety over the two-day Fed policy meeting, centred on expectations the central bank will likely drop its pledge to [...]
Darin Brown of WPP agency POSSIBLE on digital-focused advertising and the rise of gamification September 14, 2014 WPP has been rapidly building up its digital presence in recent years, partly by acquiring smaller agencies worldwide and folding them into POSSIBLE. Darin Brown, POSSIBLE’s Europe, Middle East and Africa chief executive, talks to City A.M. about creating digital-focused advertising, and why brands are increasingly looking at interactive campaigns. You’ve worked on both [...]
Apple CEO Tim Cook explains Beats Electronics purchase in wide-ranging interview September 14, 2014 Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook has said it was the strength of Beats Electronics' subscription service that persuaded him to sign off on the $3bn (£1.8bn) purchase of the company earlier this year. In a wide-ranging interview with Charlie Rose on American network PBS last week, Cook touched on a number of topics ranging [...]
Tour of Britain 2014 in pictures: Wiggins wins time trial in London as Cavendish narrowly misses out on final stage victory September 14, 2014 British cycling fans made the most of some sumptuous September weather to see a number of the sport's biggest names race through London on the final day of the Tour of Britain. Bradley Wiggins won Sunday's individual time trial, however Mark Cavendish narrowly missed out on joining his compatriot as a stage winner in the [...]
Scottish independence: Large crowds protest against perceived BBC and Nick Robinson bias September 14, 2014 At least 1,000 people have protested outside the BBC’s Glasgow HQ against the broadcaster’s perceived bias in the Scottish independence referendum. Pro-independence supporters, many of whom were waving the flag of Scotland and holding anti-BBC placards, gathered outside the BBC Scotland building in the Pacific Quay area at around 2pm this afternoon. The [...]
Joseph Stiglitz on Scottish independence: No basis for “fear-mongering” and currency a “non- issue” September 14, 2014 The latest esteemed economist to share their thoughts on the Scottish independence debate has called some of the talk around Scotland’s post-independence economy “fear mongering” and the hot-button issue of currency a “non-issue”. Nobel-Prize winning Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz is the latest economist to wade into the Scottish independence debate in a newspaper column [...]