Why the London Stock Exchange’s French boss is taking on the world February 14, 2010 L ONDON’s financial services community has a new champion: Xavier Rolet, the 50-year old French banker who took over as the London Stock Exchange’s CEO last year. Unlike many British commentators, who seem desperate to talk down one the UK’s most important industries, Rolet realises how important a prosperous City is to the UK and [...]
London retail sales growth slows down February 14, 2010 RETAIL sales in London grew at their slowest rate for five years as the stronger pound made the capital less attractive for overseas shoppers. Sales were 3.5 per cent up on the previous January, according to a report from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). In January 2009 sales figures grew by 6.5 per cent compared [...]
Politicians begin to focus on real City issues February 14, 2010 Fresh from leading a City delegation to UAE and Qatar last week and before I head out to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia tomorrow, I see that the debate on reform of the financial services industry is slowly beginning to shift. Talk of a global bank tax is rife following Gordon Brown’s declaration that he expects [...]
Plantic signs with Germans for US push February 14, 2010 PLANTIC Technologies, the Aim-listed bio-plastics firm, has announced a new distribution agreement with Klockner Pentaplast as part of its plans to expand in the US. Klockner Pentaplast is a producer of packaging materials for the pharmaceutical, medical device, food, and printing industries and will exclusively sell Plantic rigid sheet products in the Americas, replacing the [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERSn February 14, 2010 BT GROUP Charles Stanley says last week’s third quarter results from BT were positive, particularly for overall improvement in profitability, and a small uplift in full year cash flow guidance was also welcome. “However, overshadowing all this was the news on the pension fund, which was overall worse than expectations,” Stanley said. SMITH & NEPHEW Edison [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 14, 2010 Marriott Harrison The City law firm has appointed Jill Andrew and Bob Cordran, pictured, as partners in its employment team. Andrew joins from Dawsons and was also previously a senior partner at employment boutique Archon. Cordran formerly worked at Thomas Eggar, Simmons & Simmons and Olswang, and has particular expertise in advising on issues related [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK February 14, 2010 A BIT of a Thursday night blowout for this group of four diners, who spent a cosy evening at Mayfair’s new luxury Italian haunt Babbo. In true continental style, our foodies did not spare a thought for their waistlines as they chowed their way through carpaccio, mixed antipasti and crab salad for starters; beef cheek, [...]
EX-FAIRFAX CHIEFTAIN MAKES HIS COMEBACK February 14, 2010 MEMBERS of the City’s investment banking community have probably been wondering for months what has become of Adam Hart, the cheery former managing director of Fairfax. Hart left Fairfax last summer and hasn’t been heard from since, apart from a stubborn rumour doing the rounds in the autumn that he was about to join Edward [...]
German recovery stalls February 12, 2010 GERMANY’S recovery from recession has hit the buffers in the final quarter of 2009, according to preliminary figures released on Friday. The German economy failed to grow in the last three months of the year, leaving GDP unchanged compared with the previous quarter. Meanwhile France reported a 0.6 per cent rise in GDP for the [...]
New Look postpones IPO February 12, 2010 HIGH Street fashion retailer New Look has shelved its planned initial public offering (IPO) making it the third private equity-backed firm in as many days to abandon a flotation in turbulent financial markets. The decision to pull back from £1.6bn offering will cast a shadow over other IPO hopefuls, like travel firm Amadeus and online [...]