Horizon recruits ex-Goldman man January 7, 2010 US private investment firm Horizon Asset Management yesterday named former Goldman Sachs partner Douglas Kramer as chief executive. The move is part of the New York firm’s strategy to lure money from institutional investors to add to its existing client base of high-net-worth individuals.
European flotations start to rise January 7, 2010 The number of company flotations in Europe rose significantly in the final quarter of 2009, a study shows. There were 61 initial public offerings (IPOs) worth €4.99bn in the last quarter of the year, compared with 44 listings that raised €1.37bn in the third quarter, according to the IPO Watch Europe survey from business services [...]
Music sales hit by piracy January 7, 2010 Album sales in the UK fell for the fifth year in a row in 2009, highlighting the threat posed to record labels by online pirates and video games, industry figures showed. Sales fell 3.5 per cent to 128.9m in 2009, according to figures from the BPI music industry group.
Ireland confident of bad bank plan January 7, 2010 Ireland is confident of European Union (EU) approval for its “bad bank” scheme by February, resulting in a slight delay to its launch, officials said yesterday.
Brown lays out new plan for growth January 7, 2010 THE Labour government’s efforts to engineer an economic recovery are compatible with tackling the record budget deficit, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday. With the country emerging from its worst recession in decades, policymakers are trying to support the recovery while also reassuring sceptical financial markets that plans to halve the deficit over four [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 7, 2010 SAGE UBS has switched its rating to “buy” from “netural”, pointing out it is trading at a 23 per cent discount to its FTSE peer group. It believes the current share price ignores the sustainability of Sage’s 2009 cost savings programme. Anticipates a “solid” trading update later this month, and says “patient” buyers will be [...]
£50m payday for Paulson Europe team January 7, 2010 PAULSON Europe, the UK arm of the hedge fund that made £400m betting against British banks during the financial crisis, boosted its revenues by 42 per cent last year. Four directors shared more than £50m for the 12 months to March as profits soared, according to the latest accounts. The highest-paid director, thought to be [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 7, 2010 Rathbone Brothers The fund management group has appointed Mike Webb as chief executive of its unit trust business, Rathbone Unit Trust Management. Webb has over 25 years of experience in the retail funds world and joins from Hermes Fund Managers, where he was head of business development. He has also previously held roles as chief [...]
Interest rate held at 0.5% January 7, 2010 The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has once again frozen the interest rate at 0.5 per cent. It also agreed to continue with quantitative easing to help shore up the economy. The interest rate has remained unchanged since March after the MPC took drastic action to tackle the global economic crisis. Quantitative easing [...]
Sainsbury’s reports “record” Christmas performance January 7, 2010 SUPERMARKET chain J Sainsbury was given a festive boost with sales rising by 3.8 per cent as shoppers snapped up food and drink for Christmas. The like-for-like sales figures for the 12 weeks to Boxing Day beat the forecasts of City analysts who had predicted a 3.5 per cent gain. The data also show that [...]