MPs slam the BBC for being too secretive April 7, 2010 THE BBC has been slammed for being too secretive over its finances by the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC). A report by MPs said the BBC must be held to account over its spending after it was criticised for splashing out vast sums on building projects and staffing levels at events including the World Cup [...]
ANALYSTS TAKE THEIR GAMBLE ON WORLD CUP April 7, 2010 WORLD Cup fever is starting to grip the City in earnest ahead of the summer in South Africa, as evidenced by the latest analysts to have a pop at the business impact of the tournament. Sanford Bernstein’s Trevor Stirling, Joao Valli and Melissa Yates yesterday released a missive on the effects of the World Cup [...]
CITY EYE April 7, 2010 Birdspotters Anders Price and David Lindo, founders of the Bird Study Group, look out over a drab grey City yesterday through their binoculars, from the dizzying heights of the top of Tower 42. The Heron Tower, seen in the background, is nearing completion.
Vanish chief cleans up with £90m packet April 7, 2010 RECKITT Benckiser chief executive Bart Becht took home almost £90m after the company had a strong financial year. According to the company’s 2009 annual report, which was published yesterday, most of the sum came from share options that Becht cashed in. His base salary rose to £987,000 last year. After pocketing a £3.5m bonus, his [...]
Sly Bailey gets a healthy pay rise at Trinity Mirror April 7, 2010 TRINITY Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey took home £1.43m last year after profits at the newspaper group fell from £124.2m to £72.7m. Bailey’s package included a £671,000 bonus for reaching certain targets and is well up on last year’s £757,000. A spokesman for Trinity Mirror told City A.M. last night that the company’s operating profits were [...]
SEC bolsters rules on loan securitisations April 7, 2010 WALL Street regulators yesterday proposed issuers of mortgage-backed securities and similar instruments disclose more about the underlying loans and keep five per cent of the credit risk in some circumstances, in an effort to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule responds to the debacle involving securities packed [...]
Divisions in Shadow MPC but rates held April 7, 2010 RIFTS are appearing within City A.M.’s Shadow Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) with two members calling for an interest rate hike of 0.25 per cent this month and one saying he would be happy to see another £25bn of quantitative easing (QE). The shadow MPC’s decision to keep rates and QE unchanged comes ahead of the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 7, 2010 Nomura The Japanese investment bank has appointed Mikael Dahl as co-head of its Nordic investment banking team, based in London. Dahl was previously a partner at EQT Partners and brings with him over 20 years of investment banking experience. He previously worked at Citigroup/Salomon Brothers from 1994 to 2008, latterly as European co-head of the [...]
Services data disappoints but firms are confident and hiring April 7, 2010 ACTIVITY in Britain’s services sector expanded at a slower pace last month according to a leading survey while official statistics confirmed the impact of adverse weather conditions on the sector in January. The CIPS/Markit business activity index fell to 56.5 from February’s three-year high of 58.3, disappointing the markets which had expected little change. However, [...]
CITY A.M. | SHADOW MPC April 7, 2010 ALLISTER HEATH | CITY A.M. “The Bank should hike rates by a symbolic 0.25 per cent to show that it is serious when it comes to fighting inflation and that it is confident the economy is growing again. The UK is weak but no longer in recession.” SIMON WARD | HENDERSON “Raise rates by 25 [...]