BarCap eyes retail share offer venture April 11, 2010 BARCLAYS Capital, the investment banking arm of British financial services giant Barclays, yesterday said it had formed a joint venture with Solid Solutions Associates (SSA) to oversee retail share offerings in initial public offerings. The deal will see SSA advise and assist Barclays Capital on project management aspects of any retail tranche of initial public [...]
Blackstone and Wellcome tie up for RBS branch bid April 11, 2010 BUYOUT firm Blackstone and charity the Wellcome Trust have launched a joint bid for bank branches being sold by Royal Bank of Scotland. The bid from Blackstone and the Wellcome Trust, a charitable foundation which manages a £13bn investment portfolio, brings the total number of offers for the RBS branches to five. RBS declined to [...]
NAB eyes IPO for UK units April 11, 2010 NATIONAL Australia Bank is considering a £2bn flotation of its UK operations, the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, City A.M. understands. The Melbourne-headquartered institution is looking at an initial public offering (IPO) for the units as one of several courses of action. Chief executive Cameron Clyne last week said the group wanted to participate in the [...]
Crozier may poach from rival for top ITV production job April 11, 2010 NEW ITV chief executive Adam Crozier will seek to make a statement of intent when he hires a new executive to lead ITV Studios. He is likely to attempt to coax senior industry figures working at rival firms as ITV seeks to bolster its production of exportable content. Names that have been linked to the [...]
Lloyds chews over possible joint venture with independent broker April 11, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group is mulling over the possibility of a tie-up with one of the City’s independent brokers, in order to beef up its equity capital markets (ECM) capabilities. The bank previously hired key executives from the broking sector to expand its ECM desk, which has only a tiny share of the overall market. Lloyds [...]
Debenhams boosted by Principles April 11, 2010 DEBENHAMS is expected to report a strong performance in the six months to February, with half-year pre-tax profits of £116m expected – 15 per cent up from a year earlier. The success is attributed to good sales from its own-brand ranges such as Principles, designed by Ben de Lisi, but analysts are still cautious about [...]
Qinetiq’s new boss promises big shake-up April 11, 2010 LEO Quinn, the new chief executive of Qinetiq, will announce radical new plans next month to turn around the fortunes of the struggling British defence technology firm. Quinn is in the process of finalising his restructuring programme, which will include slashing redundancy terms for thousands of the company’s UK employees. Union representatives have been told [...]
Quinn has a second chance April 11, 2010 LIKE BT Group, the former state-owned telecoms firm, Qinetiq has struggled to shake off its public sector ethos since it was privatised in 2003. It has a remarkably impressive history; starting life as the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (Dera), its scientists invented the liquid crystal display and carbon fibre. But a prohibitively expensive cost [...]
UK exports up but number of companies falls April 11, 2010 THE NUMBER of British companies exporting goods fell slightly during the fourth quarter of last year according to government data. During the fourth quarter of 2009, 1,764 UK companies exported goods, marking a 3.4 per cent decline on the same period last year. After analysing data provided by the government, Close Treasury – a subsidiary [...]
City sceptics maul Tory bank tax plans April 11, 2010 SENIOR City figures yesterday warned that Tory leader David Cameron’s proposals to raise over £1bn from a levy on the banks would prove to be a further drag on the competitiveness of the City on the global stage. The Conservatives, who are due to outline the bank tax in their party manifesto tomorrow, plan to [...]