INVESTMENT BANK WANNABE LAYS HIS SOUL BARE AT GOLDMAN ALTAR January 24, 2010 DEPLETED bonus pool or not, it appears university graduates are still tripping over themselves to land a coveted internship position at Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs. In swoops an email doing the rounds in the City, alerting The Capitalist to a copy of a Goldman internship application form recently sent by an aspiring master of [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK January 24, 2010 OFF to Vivat Bacchus’ champagne bar on Friday for a stylish private shindig where our diners munched their way through seven themed platters, including a selection of South African delicacies such as ostrich carpaccio and biltong, before picking at the restaurant’s finest British and French cheeses. Washing all that down were wines from the South [...]
Barclays will defer rewards January 24, 2010 SENIOR Barclays figures including chief executive John Varley and president Bob Diamond will have their bonuses deferred over three years. In a move to pre-empt public outcry over bumper payouts, Barclays’ 11-strong executive committee and other top staff will take their bonuses mostly in shares, up to 100 per cent of which will be staggered [...]
Top Goldman bankers’ bonus pots will be capped at £1m January 24, 2010 GOLDMAN Sachs will cap bonuses for its top London bankers at £1m. Details of the clampdown have not been officially released but a source close to Goldman confirmed the story last night. The news will anger top deal makers at the bank, whose compensation packages have in the past topped £10m. Senior bankers will receive [...]
Sell-off of bank shares is looking overdone January 24, 2010 FOR a President that promised hope not fear, Barack Obama is happy to spook the markets. Last week, the CBOE volatility index – Wall Street’s fear gauge – surged by 62 per cent to close Friday at 27.31, its biggest run in three years. It’s not just the war on banks that has investors running [...]
RBS confident in Sempra sale January 24, 2010 ROYAL Bank of Scotland is optimistic of offloading its US commodities business, despite concerns it may be affected by President Barack Obama’s crackdown on proprietary trading. The Edinburgh-based bank hopes to sell its 51 per cent stake in Sempra Commodities to JPMorgan Chase for around $2bn (£1.2bn) in time for its year-end results on 25 [...]
China bank in massive share sale January 24, 2010 BANK of China is planning to raise tens of billions of dollars in capital to shore up its balance sheet after a lending binge. The bank said it will seek shareholder approval for a mandate to sell new shares worth no more than 20 per cent of its existing Hong Kong and Shanghai listed shares [...]
Britain seen exiting slump but still weak January 24, 2010 AFTER months of lingering in recession, the UK is expected to have finally exited recession in the last three months of 2009, according to official figures due out tomorrow. But while the country may be rejoicing that the longest and deepest post-war recession is over, economists warned that the preliminary estimate would still be subject [...]
Irish approach could resolve Greek tragedy January 24, 2010 Should Greece be following Ireland down the path of austerity? Finance minister George Papaconstantinou could certainly do with a few friends in the bond market right now but is the Irish playbook really an option? The Celtic Tiger was the first Euro zone country to enter recession at the back end of 2008. The Irish [...]
HOW MUCH WEIGHT SHOULD WE PLACE ON TOMORROW’S GDP FIGURE? January 24, 2010 DAVID PAGE | INVESTEC Sharp changes in the economy have led to significant deviation between the official series and anecdotal evidence. We continue to attach weight to the more buoyant assessments from the CBI and the PMI surveys. There is plenty of room for surprises at this first estimate. JAMES KNIGHTLEY | ING At this [...]