Financial companies left behind in upturn July 11, 2010 STRESS levels are mounting at financial services firms even as corporates across the board begin to recover, according to the latest monthly City A.M./Begbies Taynor health monitor for the Square Mile. While companies in Greater London showed a marked improvement in June, with 23 per cent fewer suffering from serious problems, woes continued to pile [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 11, 2010 WILLIAM HILL Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) has upgraded William Hill to a “buy” rating and said it believes that the stock is high quality and at good value. Strong trends online and improvement in machines are key catalysts for 2010, according to BoAML, which said that execution risk is believed to be low. [...]
KKR switches to NYSE July 11, 2010 Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co’s long-awaited listing on the Big Board brings a wide investor audience to the iconic private equity firm and could be a bellwether for rivals looking to follow suit. The buyout firm will switch from Amsterdam-based Euronext on July 15 to the New York Stock Exchange, joining rival Blackstone Group, which [...]
BC Partners in $3.1bn deal July 11, 2010 Private equity firms BC Partners and Silver Lake Partners are set to buy US healthcare services firm MultiPlan from two other buyout shops, the companies announced, in a deal worth about $3.1bn (£2.1bn) They are buying it from rival buyout firms Carlyle Group and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.
New cartoon leads box office July 11, 2010 A new family cartoon, “Despicable Me”, featuring the voice of Steve Carell, easily took the top spot at the weekend box office in North America yesterday, virtually assuring Universal Pictures of a lucrative franchise with its first foray into 3D animation. The film earned an estimated $60.1m (£40m) across the United States and Canada during [...]
PROPERTY BIGWIGS GET OUT THEIR WALLETS FOR A DAY AT THE RACES July 11, 2010 FOR STARTERS, let’s head down to Ascot racecourse – always a pleasure – for the annual Property Race Day, playground of the suited and booted doyens of the property world. This year marked a change of scenery for the charity event set up by Parkwood Asset Management founder Derek Lucie-Smith, which moved from Sandown Park [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK July 11, 2010 A RATHER civilised 50th birthday celebration for these four City types last week as they headed to the riverside High Timber restaurant for a slap-up meal. The group pre-ordered their food with the chef, plumping for whole truffles baked in choux pastry, a whole rib of beef with foie gras, and strawberries and cream for [...]
China renews Google licence July 9, 2010 GOOGLE has sealed a deal Chinese authorities to renew its licence to operate a website in the country. The move came after a row over censorship between the country and the search engine. Google said last week that it would stop automatically rerouting users to its uncensored Hong Kong-based search page, explaining that Beijing had [...]
Hamleys back in the black July 9, 2010 HAMLEYS has bounced back into the black for the first time in six years. Like-for-like sales rose five per cent in the year to 31 March helping the retailer to a pre-tax profit of £0.1m from continuing operations versus a loss of £4.1m in the previous year. However once exceptional charges associated with the restructuring [...]
UK trade gap widens July 9, 2010 OFFICIAL data showed Britain’s goods trade deficit with the rest of the world widened to £8.062bn in May from £7.411bn in April after imports jumped 2.4 per cent on the month while exports were broadly flat. That was a surprise to economists waiting in vain for an export-led recovery after the pound’s 20 per cent [...]