Suntory wants Niinami president June 24, 2014 Japanese brewer and distiller Suntory is looking to hire Harvard educated Takeshi Niinami as president, the first time the 115-year-old company has looked outside members of its founding family for the job. Suntory, famous for its Yamazaki whisky, is looking to expand globally, having bought US drinks company Beam for $16bn recently. It hopes that [...]
Avon plans to cut 600 more jobs June 24, 2014 Door-to-door beauty products company Avon is to cut another 600 jobs, as part of its plans to slash costs and return the company to profitable growth. The cuts will mainly come from the corporate organisation and North American business, as Avon hopes to save $50-$55m annually by the cuts and other restructuring efforts. Chief executive [...]
Kenmare chairman to retire June 24, 2014 Justin Loasby, chairman of Irish mining company Kenmare Resources, is to retire with immediate effect because of ill health, the board announced yesterday. Steven McTiernan, a non-executive director of Kenmare, will take up the role of non-executive chairman to replace Loasby. McTiernan has over 40 years’ diverse natural resources industry and investment banking experience, including [...]
City Moves for 25 June 2014 | Who’s switching jobs June 24, 2014 USS Investment Management Bertrand Biragnet has been appointed head of pan-European equities at the investment arm of the Universities Superannuation Scheme. Biragnet was previously a global equity manager at RIT Capital Partners, and has also held roles at Hermes Focus Asset Management and JP Morgan Asset Management. He also co-launched a long-short equity fund hosted [...]
Best of the Brokers for 25 June 2014 June 24, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com AVIVA UBS has downgraded Aviva to “neutral” from “buy”, also cutting the target price to 524p from 570p. The broker believes that Aviva is no longer the compelling restructuring that a premium valuation deserves, with structurally lower reserve growth in its life insurance [...]
London Report: FTSE drops on worrying data on the economy June 24, 2014 BRITAIN’S top share index slipped slightly yesterday, led lower by mining stocks, as signs of economic weakness in Europe and growing tension in Iraq made investors cautious. The FTSE 100 closed down 0.2 per cent, or 13.49 points, at 6,787.06 points following gains in early trade. The UK mining index, down 0.8 per cent, was [...]
New York Report: Dow suffers a triple-digit fall on Iraq fears June 24, 2014 US STOCKS had their biggest fall in over a month yesterday as early enthusiasm from economic data faded and concerns about the violence in Iraq gave investors a reason to sell and book some profits. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 119.13 points or 0.7 per cent, to end at 16,818.13 – its biggest drop [...]
3 ways Nest Labs and the internet of things are about to make your life easier June 24, 2014 Nest, the Google-owned smart home company, has revealed a whole host of tie-ups with household names such as Mercedes and Whirlpool to create the home of the future. The partnerships will give developers access to Nest’s API- the code it designed for controlling household thermostats and smoke detectors- and other products such as cars and [...]
M&A boom as deals up 35 pc on 2013 June 24, 2014 Global M&A volume was up 35 per cent in the six months of 2014, the biggest first-half of a year for dealmaking since 2007, according to data from Dealogic. The figure for mergers and acquisitions globally reached $1.75 trillion in the first half of 2014, an increase of 35 per cent from $1.30 trillion last year. The last [...]
Shares: The greedier the CEO, the lower the value June 24, 2014 Avaricious CEOs are bad for business, according to a report published by the Journal of Management. Called “When More Is Not Enough: Executive Greed and its Influence on Shareholder Wealth”, it examines the effect of a CEO's greed on share value for over 300 publicly traded firms. Professor Katalin Takacs Haynes and her team at [...]