CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 27, 2010 Speechly Bircham The law firm has appointed Jonathan Crawford as a partner in its corporate practice. Crawford joins from Mayer Brown, where he was also a partner in the London corporate group. He specialises in the financial services sector, where he has a wealth of previous experience of large, often cross-border, transactional work including mergers [...]
Post Offices to get £1.3bn of new funding October 27, 2010 The government yesterday unveiled a £1.3bn funding package for the UK’s post office network. The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills said the 11,500 post offices would receive more than £330m a year for four years to maintain and modernise the network. Business secretary Vince Cable said the cash would allow post offices to extend [...]
Orange JV sees revenues rise by just 0.1pc October 27, 2010 EVERYTHING Everywhere reported sluggish growth yesterday as the newly merged entity struggled to hit ambitious growth forecasts. The joint venture between France Telecom’s Orange and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile saw its revenues rise by just 0.1 per cent year-on-year to £1.8bn, compared to a 5.3 per cent drop last quarter. Revenue from its core mobile services, [...]
Bank of China record profit buoys lenders October 27, 2010 Bank of China, China’s fourth-largest bank by assets, posted a 29 per cent rise in third-quarter profit on strong lending and a resilient domestic economy, as concerns of a rise in future bad loans after a 2009 lending binge began to recede. The strong results bode well for its planned $8.8bn (£5.5bn) rights issue, even [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS October 27, 2010 SMITHS NEWS Altium Securities rates the media distributor a “buy” with a target price of 143p. The broker says the firm’s 6.8 per cent dividend yield looks attractive, and that business developments in the pipeline will increase growth in the next 12 to 18 months. Altium has also raised its pre-tax profit forecasts following stronger [...]
AIA forecast to rise 11pc on its Hong Kong IPO October 27, 2010 AIA Group is expected to post a double-digit gain in its trading debut on Friday as investors scramble for a slice of one of Asia’s most recognised life insurance brands after its record Hong Kong IPO. AIA’s wide Asian footprint, strong life insurance cashflow and its large, $30.5bn (£19.3bn) market value are some of the [...]
PIMCO’S GROSS ISSUES WARNING OVER A BRAZEN PONZI SCHEME: QE October 27, 2010 PIMCO’S resident bond expert Bill Gross yesterday, in his usual verbose fashion, issued a stark warning over the upcoming second round of quantitative easing (QE) in the US – dubbing it no less than a “Ponzi scheme” on the part of the Federal Reserve. “Check [sic] writing in the trillions is not a bondholder’s friend; [...]
TONIGHT WILL BE A NIGHT FOR HEARTY CELEBRATION October 27, 2010 THIS evening will see 450 guests in their finery roll up at the Grange hotel at St Paul’s, as City A.M. proudly hosts its first ever awards ceremony honouring the UK’s business stars and City luminaries. The award winners will come from a diverse range of sectors, from investment to retail banking, fund management and [...]
US new home sales rise October 27, 2010 Sales of new homes in the US went up 6.6 per cent in September to 307,000. The figure beat market expectations of a rise to just 300,000. However, the rate is still 21.5 per cent below the level of a year ago.
BAA narrows losses and plans £300m bond issue October 27, 2010 BAA has reported a reduction in losses for the nine months to the end of September and strong growth in passenger numbers. Pre-tax losses were £192.6m – were down from £784.7m in the same period a year ago. Meanwhile evenue was up 4.4 per cent at £1.55bn. The company reported “record passenger traffic” between July [...]