City Moves for 22 April 2014 | Who’s switching jobs April 21, 2014 DWF The law firm has appointed Stephen Miles as chief executive of its commercial services division. He joins from Pinsent Masons, where he was head of financial institutions and human capital, and a member of its leadership team. Miles is a transactional banking lawyer, and has acted for the national acquisition and leveraged finance teams [...]
European cuts denting sales at Kimberly-Clark April 21, 2014 TEARING up its business structure has pushed tissue maker Kimberly-Clark’s revenues lower in the first quarter of the year. The company behind Kleenex and Andrex said restructuring and foreign exchange costs had sent sales down one per cent to $5.3bn (£3.16bn). While organic sales were up four per cent, currency movements knocked off three per [...]
Kitemark company BSI tries to raise the standard in China and Antarctica April 21, 2014 THE COMPANY behind the Kitemark is exporting its quality checks as far afield as China and Antarctica. The British Standards Institution (BSI), set up in 1901 to ensure steel products were up to scratch, today posted a seven per cent rise in yearly revenues to £271.8m. Operating profits fell nine per cent to £28.3m, which [...]
Best of the Brokers for 22 April 2014 April 21, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com TESCO HSBC cuts its forecasts on the supermarket by 11 per cent for this year as UK like-for-like sales and margins appear to be sliding further, and has advised Tesco to consider withdrawing from parts of Europe. The broker keeps its “underweight” rating [...]
London Report: Osborne likely to have missed financial target April 21, 2014 UK PUBLIC borrowing figures this week are expected to show that the chancellor George Osborne narrowly missed his target for this year. And while future revisions may bring the figures back within Osborne’s target, the figures are likely to bring further scepticism about whether the UK can continue to meets its fiscal targets. “We expect [...]
New York Report: US stocks rise but investors wary after rally April 21, 2014 US STOCKS advanced modestly yesterday in subdued trading as investors showed hesitation in the wake of a strong rally last week and before a slew of key earnings releases this week. Yesterday’s gain marked the S&P 500’s fifth straight climb, its longest winning streak since October. The S&P 500 wrapped up its best week since [...]
Berlin follows Brussels with Uber ban April 17, 2014 Germany's capital city has followed the lead of Brussels and banned the insurgent taxi service Uber. The San-Francisco based company was served with an injunction by a Berlin court for hurting competition. In a sign that European taxi drivers are increasingly worried they may have to provide a quality service at a decent price, the [...]
EU doubles down on drug war failure April 17, 2014 The European Parliament has voted for a host of new laws and regulations governing so called "legal highs." The time taken to ban psychoactive substances deemed to be harmful has been slashed from two years to ten months. If there is perceived to be an immediate risk, a substance can be placed under a one [...]
Clifford Chance finds no evidence of systemic fraud at RBS April 17, 2014 State-backed bank RBS has today responded to a report by Lawrence Tomlinson, which alleged that the bank's Global Restructuring Group (GRG) was systematically defrauding small business customers. Clifford Chance was appointed to investigate the claims made, and RBS state that the investigation has "concluded that there was no evidence to support this damaging and serious [...]
Beleaguered Co-op reveals £2.5bn loss April 17, 2014 The Co-op has unveiled losses of £2.5bn. The group admitted it had been a "disastrous" year, going so far as to say it was the worst in its 150-year history. Interim chief executive Richard Penny cook, commented "these results should serve as a wake-up call to anyone who doubts just how serious the challenges we [...]