City Moves for 28 October 2009 | Who’s switching jobs October 27, 2009 GAMThe investment management firm has appointed Niall Gallagher as an investment director, effective from 2 November. Gallagher, who will be responsible for managing GAM’s European long-only equity strategies, previously managed pan-European and continental European equities at T. Rowe Price. He also formerly worked at BlackRock for nine years, having begun his career as an economist [...]
Punters look for quality when recommending brands October 27, 2009 HOW important is buzz? To find out, we compared three sets of BrandIndex scores – “buzz”, “quality”, and “recommend” – for three leading Japanese car brands (Nissan, Toyota, Subaru). Graph one shows the scatter for buzz against recommend, Graph two for buzz against quality. There is virtually no correlation between these brands’ buzz and recommend [...]
BBVA eyes up US expansion but shuns UK October 27, 2009 BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank, is eyeing the US for expansion as it strengthens its capital base ahead of expected tougher regulation, its chief executive said yesterday. “Our expansion strategy has not changed. We are clearly focusing on the US,” Angel Cano said alongside the bank’s nine-month results. Europe’s sixth-largest bank, a relative winner from the [...]
LITE’S OUT October 27, 2009 THE future of free evening paper The London Lite was in doubt last night, after owner DMGT said it was considering closing the tabloid. London Lite was launched three years ago to take on Rupert Murdoch’s thelondonpaper, which closed last month. DMGT is now consulting with the paper’s 36 employees. The announcement comes a week [...]
Valero prepares for US shutdown October 27, 2009 Leading US refiner Valero Energy said yesterday it would shut down some of its plants due to poor margins in the economic downturn. Its Delaware refinery will close for an extended period at the start of November. And its Louisiana refinery will also undergo a plantwide shutdown during overhauls of crude units and coking units [...]
Sinopec rebuffs Jubilee rumours October 27, 2009 Sinopec, the Chinese petrol company, said it was not aware of discussions with Ghana National Petroleum to jointly bid for the Jubilee offshore oil field, after much speculation yesterday. It had been thought that Sinopec had proposed a joint venture for the field.
Investors back Delta Lloyd’s IPO October 27, 2009 Investors have already placed enough orders to back Delta Lloyd’s €1.2bn initial public offering (IPO) with about a week to spare, pointing to decent demand for the flotation.
Money Dashboard secures 1m October 27, 2009 Money Dashboard, a personal finance website that helps people keep track of their money, said yesterday that it had secured a further £1m in investment ahead of its beta testing launch date next month. The service connects to a user’s online financial accounts and allows them to view all of their transactions in one place. [...]
Citi rainmaker King joins Barclays Capital October 27, 2009 BARCLAYS Capital, the fast-growing division of Barclays that includes the US operations of fallen Lehman Brothers, has hired former Citigroup deal maker Tom King. King, who quit Citigroup five weeks ago saying he wanted to “pursue other interests”, was named co-head of corporate finance reporting to head of global investment banking Hugh “Skip” McGee. The [...]
Chipmaker Arm says it will grow faster than rivals October 27, 2009 MICROCHIP designer ARM met expectations for third-quarter revenue and earnings yesterday and said it expects to outperform a recovery in the industry next year. “Despite pressure on customers’ R&D budgets this year, demand for ARM’s processors and physical IP technology remains strong, with a record numbers of licences signed in the third quarter,” said finance [...]