Profits soar at Vertu Motors October 18, 2010 Car dealership group Vertu Motors saw pre-tax profits soar by three quarters to £4.9m over the first half of its financial year after acquiring a number of new sales outlets. Vertu, which will commence dividend payments in January, added that it beat management expectations for new car performance in September, gaining market share with new [...]
RBS may sell £1bn Spanish property unit October 18, 2010 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is understood to be considering selling a £1bn Spanish property loan portfolio after hiring Morgan Stanley to advise on its options. The Spanish commercial property loans add to a £3bn portfolio of British real estate loans also on the block. Private equity firms and specialised investors looking to pick up [...]
KKR tables bid for Australian fund manager October 18, 2010 US Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) has offered up to $1.73bn (£1bn) for Australian fund manager Perpetual, reigniting merger interest in Australia’s $1 trillion wealth management sector. Australia’s wealth management industry is the world’s fourth largest and is expected to grow at 12 per cent a year, but mergers have dried up over [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS October 18, 2010 SMITHS GROUP Charles Stanley says strong free cash generation continues to support longer-term growth through increased R&D, targeted acquisitions and expansion in emerging markets. The broker thinks speculation about an eventual break-up of the group is likely to persist. Despite Smiths’ sluggish sales performance, operating margins improved to a 10-year high of 17.8 per cent. [...]
The accountant who sees EU rules as a chance to transform his firm October 18, 2010 For a man less than three months away from retirement, BDO’s policy board chairman – in effect, the firm’s international chairman – can’t wait to get into the issues. And to be fair, there is much for Dermot Mathias, who joined the accountancy giant 37 years ago, to discuss. What excites him most is the [...]
Dubai firm to retain Europe units for 2011 October 18, 2010 Dubai International Capital (DIC) will not sell any European assets before the end of 2011, its chief investment officer said yesterday, as it waits for their value to rise. The private equity arm of Dubai Holding, the investment vehicle owned by the ruler of Dubai, is undergoing a debt restructuring. “It’s fair to say that [...]
StanChart and AgBank deepen JV October 18, 2010 Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank) and Asia-focused lender Standard Chartered have deepened a strategic alliance under which the two banks plan to set up a joint venture, AgBank said yesterday. Earlier this year, Standard Chartered invested $500m (£315m) as a cornerstone investor in AgBank’s initial public offering in Hong Kong. AgBank, China’s third-largest lender by [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 18, 2010 Matrix The financial services group has appointed Simon Elvidge as its new group head of compliance and assurance. Elvidge has over 20 years of experience in the sector and joins from Numis Securities, where he was head of compliance. Prior to that, he spent time working at HSBC, Société Générale and at Newedge Group, the [...]
Citigroup profit tops expectations October 18, 2010 Citigroup reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday as credit losses slowed and the bank set aside much less money to cover bad loans. Analysts said the results were mixed. Revenue rose slightly from a year earlier but fell from the second quarter, and the bank dipped into reserves to cover bad loans. Investors expressed [...]
Beazley move for Hardy rejected October 18, 2010 Lloyd’s of London insurer Beazley said smaller peer Hardy Underwriting had rejected a takeover approach made earlier this month but that it still hoped to clinch a deal. Dublin-based Beazley said that on 6 October it had proposed paying 300 pence per share in cash for Hardy, valuing the company at about £155m. The approach, [...]