ICAP boss defends share sale February 8, 2010 Michael Spencer, Tory party fundraiser and chief executive of interdealer broker ICAP, hit out at criticism of his sale of £45m worth of shares shortly before the firm issued a profits warning. ICAP shares lost 20 per cent on 12 February, four weeks after Spencer cashed in. In a letter, he said: “This was clearly [...]
Frosty start to 2010 for estate agents February 8, 2010 HEAVY snow and icy conditions froze activity in the housing market last month but estate agents continued to report rising prices, according to the latest survey from the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors (RICS). Although a net 32 per cent of estate agents saw property prices continue to rise, compared to 30 per cent in [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE HOUSE PRICES ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY? February 8, 2010 PAUL WALTERS | MCDERMOTT WILL & EMERY “London property prices are robust but I’m not sure about the rest of the country where there continues to be oversupply. In London, especially St. John’s Wood, Chelsea, Hampstead and Fulham, there will be no problem as there is huge demand.” CHRISTOPHER HAYDAY | WILLIS “It would be [...]
Santander’s float could repair losses February 8, 2010 SANTANDER may use capital raised from the mooted £15bn float of its UK operations to repair heavy losses on its loan book, analysts said yesterday. The Iberian lender is considering freeing up around £3.8bn by selling a quarter of Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley through a stockmarket listing. It has been suggested [...]
Retailers hit by worst January in 15 years as snow and VAT hike take toll February 8, 2010 THE UK high street shuddered last month as retailers suffered their worst January in 15 years due to snow and a lack of consumer confidence, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) will say today. Underlying sales values for January fell 0.7 per cent compared to a 2.6 per cent rise the year before. On a total [...]
Capital leads rest of UK out of slump February 8, 2010 LONDON is leading the UK out of recession, new economic data has suggested. The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) shows that the capital was the strongest performer last month. The index for London, based on a survey of 1,200 manufacturing and service sector firms, was at 60.6. Any number above 50 is a sign that the [...]
BP faces oil sands revolt February 8, 2010 BP will become the latest oil company to face a shareholder revolt over proposed investments in Canada’s controversial oil sands at its annual meeting on 15 April. Shareholders led by FairPension, who also include the Co-operative Asset Management and the Unison Staff Pension Scheme, have filed a resolution saying BP’s plans to study a $10bn [...]
Risk rules will hurt top firms February 8, 2010 THE world’s top 100 financial firms will be forced to stump up more than $111bn (£71bn) by 2012 to cope with the onslaught of new risk and compliance regulation, according to a report by?Deloitte. Top firms spent $50bn on compliance procedures in 2006, but Basel II, Solvency II, the Companies Act and the Walker Review [...]
Investment banks in fee surge over 2009 February 8, 2010 INVESTMENT banking revenues surged in 2009 after a boost from the global equity market rally, high trading volumes and a jump in capital markets fund raising activity, new data from International Financial Services London (IFSL) has shown. The world’s investment banks raked in $66bn (£42.3bn) in fees last year, a 12 per cent increase on [...]
Seymour Pierce: LSE revamp could cause exodus from Aim February 8, 2010 THE alternative market will suffer an exodus of companies when the London Stock Exchange introduces a “two-tier” structure to the main market in April, stockbroker Seymour Pierce warned. The firm said up to 15 per cent of the 1,300 businesses on Aim would be lured to the main market by the attraction of a standard [...]