McGrigors looks at UK expansion with new post September 26, 2010 MCGRIGORS, one of Scotland’s largest law firms, has overhauled its management structure after appointing Kirk Murdoch as the new UK-wide senior partner. Murdoch, who has been a partner with the law firm for 28 years, will assume the newly created role at the start of next month. His new post, which will effectively see him [...]
Lenders take over Goldman Sachs offices September 26, 2010 GOLDMAN Sachs’ headquarters in London has been taken over by lenders after the owner fell into receivership, it emerged yesterday. The buildings in Fleet Street belonged to Antedon, an offshore real estate firm, which has defaulted on a loan, according to a weekend report. Antedon’s lenders, led by Landesbank subsidiary Berlin Hyp, have appointed Jones [...]
ECI snaps up a stake in XLN September 26, 2010 PRIVATE equity group ECI Partners has snapped up a majority stake in XLN Telecom, the UK’s largest provider of fixed-line, mobile and internet services to small businesses. ECI has backed the current management and has pledged to inject funds to double the size of the business. The firm bought the controlling stake from Zeus Private [...]
PwC first to add senior City figures to the board September 26, 2010 ACCOUNTING firm PwC is set to become the first accountancy practice to add independent directors to its board after the appointment of three senior businessmen as non-executive directors. Former Rio Tinto chairman, Paul Skinner will be joined by WM Morrison chairman Sir Ian Gibson and Cable & Wireless chairman Sir Richard Lapthorne as independent directors [...]
White Stuff shows it has the right stuff September 26, 2010 FASHION retailer White Stuff has defied the recession to increase profits by 59 per cent compared to last year. The company, which was set up by Sean Thomas and George Treves, also saw a 43 per cent lift in turnover in the year to the end of May. The firm’s turnover jumped from £58.4m to [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 26, 2010 Barclays Leigh Clifford, the chairman of Qantas Airways, is to step down from his role as a non-executive on the Barclays board at the end of the month. Clifford joined the bank’s board in October 2004. In addition to his position at Qantas, he is also a director of engineering giant Bechtel Group and a [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS September 26, 2010 BHP BILLITON Evolution Securities says the balance of probabilities moving forward on BHP Billiton’s bid for Canadian owned Potash Corporation is in the mining company’s favour. The broker reiterates a “buy” for BHP because the company is not stinting on other growth investments by virtue of its strong balance sheet. GROUPE EUROTUNNEL Nomura’s confidence in [...]
MANAGING A HEDGE FUND? SIMPLE, IT’S LIKE DRIVING THE SCHOOL BUS September 26, 2010 YOU’VE got to hand it to Glenview Capital hedge fund manager Larry Robbins – The Capitalist has rarely heard such a creative defence of a period of negative returns. Robbins, in his latest newsletter to clients following a four per cent decline in his portfolio over the second quarter, touched on the equity markets and [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK September 26, 2010 TO THE Nipa Thai restaurant at the Royal Lancaster Hotel last week for a spicy mid-week lunch feast, where our diners whetted their appetites with two bottles of Louis Roederer Cristal Brut before gorging themselves on traditional Thai delicacies. They started with soups, soft shell crab and fishcakes, moving on to sample sweet and sour seabass, [...]
Louis Dreyfus in merger talks with Olam September 24, 2010 Louis Dreyfus, one of the world’s top commodity firms, is in merger talks with smaller rival Olam International in what could extend Dreyfus’ global reach and open up its closely held family ownership. Olam confirmed on Friday it was in talks with Louis Dreyfus over possible cooperation, with a merger among the options, news that [...]