BEST OF THE BROKERS January 18, 2010 QINETIQ Evolution Securities says Qinetiq is the victim of a “vicious squeeze” as robot and armour sales have yet to rise despite other equipment manufactures reaping the benefits of the recent surge in Afghanistan. It predicts restructuring costs under new chief executive Leo Quinn and adopts a “sell” position with a target price of 125p [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 18, 2010 Piper Jaffray The mid-market investment bank has poached Ian Wainwright from Canaccord Adams to join its corporate broking team as a principal. Wainwright has been a managing director at Canaccord since 2007, and was instrumental in building the firm’s life sciences franchise. Prior to that, he was in specialist biotech, medtech and pharma sales at [...]
Myners: Banks could still be hit with US-style levy January 18, 2010 CITY Minister Lord Myners has warned that a US-style levy on banks could still be slapped on the UK. His comments came after Chancellor Alistair Darling had appeared to rule out the move. US president Barack Obama is hitting US banks with a 0.15 per cent charge on liabilities in a bid to recoup at [...]
Taylor Wimpey order book up 28pc January 17, 2010 HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey has entered the new year with a 28 per cent rise in orders for new homes and seen a boost in prices. But the trading update on performance in the 12 months to 31 December saw a drop in the number of homes completed in 2009 compared with the previous year. The [...]
IMF chief warns of double dip recession January 17, 2010 THE head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the global economy could suffer a double dip recession. Dominique Strauss-Kahn said countries should not ditch stimulus packages that have triggered growth through governments’ pumping of money into economies. He warned: “We have to very cautious because this recovery remains very fragile. “Recovery in [...]
Tullow in $1.4bn African oil deal January 17, 2010 TULLOW Oil, the FTSE 100 oil explorer, is close to striking the biggest deal of its 25-year history after exercising a pre-emption right to buy $1.35bn (£830m) worth of Ugandan oil fields from its partner Heritage Oil. Tullow confirmed yesterday it had served notice on Heritage, which had previously agreed to sell the assets to [...]
UK hints at go-ahead for £6bn French power bid January 17, 2010 THE UK government has told City A.M. it would give the green light to a mooted £6bn takeover of British utility International Power by French energy giant GDF Suez. Energy secretary Ed Miliband’s department indicated last night it would wave through a merger, which would see the French operator gain a strong foothold in the [...]
EU to quiz Greeks over faulty data January 17, 2010 GREEK officials are being summoned to Brussels tomorrow to face a European Union grilling over “unreliable” national statistics as the debt-laden country awaits EU approval of an emergency action plan. The escalating Greek crisis is raising question marks over the country’s membership of the euro. German chancellor Angela Merkel broke from standard discourse when she [...]
Renault stays French made January 17, 2010 A REPRESENTATIVE of the French government will get a seat on the strategic committee of Renault, the country’s second-largest carmaker, Industry Minister Christian Estrosi said yesterday. President Nicolas Sarkozy and Estrosi had an hour-long meeting with Renault’s executive chairman, Carlos Ghosn, and his deputy, Patrick Pelata, amid fears the group would move the entire production [...]
Time to reform our monetary policy January 17, 2010 THERE have now been dozens of books and thousands of research papers on the causes of the crisis yet we are no nearer to a consensus. But there is one factor on which virtually all US analysts agree, regardless of ideological differences: the Fed kept interest far too low for too long. This triggered the [...]