Japan Airlines to slash 15,700 jobs as part of its bankruptcy protection deal January 19, 2010 JAPAN Airlines Corporation filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday owing more than $25bn (£15.2 bn), and vowed to slash 15,700 jobs in an effort to survive in an industry hit by volatile fuel costs and financially-pressed flyers. JAL, Asia’s largest airline by revenues, will remain in the skies thanks to nearly £6.7bn in support from a [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 19, 2010 MICHAEL PAGE Investec yesterday raised its target price for Michael Page to 410p from 360p and advised investors to hold the shares. It believes the recruiter’s recent trading update marked a turning point for the recruiter, noting gross profits were “sequentially ahead” for the fourth quarter compared to the same quarter last year. BURBERRY Evolution [...]
NEWS | IN BRIEF January 19, 2010 CBI refuses to back gender pay The CBI yesterday clarified its decision not to back the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) proposals regarding gender pay reporting. Katja Hall, CBI director of employment policy, said the publication of average salary figures for men and women could be “misleading”. She warned that people could think that [...]
Hedge funds beat equities January 19, 2010 HEDGE funds dramatically outperformed stocks over the last decade, according to the Hennessee Hedge Fund Index, which tracks the performance of more than 1,000 diversified hedge funds. The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index gained 88.3 per cent from January 2000 to December 2009, while the S&P 500 fell 23.33 per cent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average [...]
Britain is not heading for a hung parliament January 19, 2010 LAST year was tough for the banking industry, but it’s interesting to see which brands fared better than others. The two graphs show the proportion of positive responses each brand received out of the total responses for the set. Graph 1 tracks the three that did relatively well: Barclays, HSBC and National Savings and Investments. [...]
Blackstone-owned Travelport aims to reduce debts after $2bn fund-raising January 19, 2010 TRAVELPORT, the services group operating in the travel industry, yesterday revealed plans to raise $2bn (£1.22bn) to reduce its indebtedness. Travelport is currently around 70 per cent owned by Blackstone, the private equity group. Travelport will be raising $1.775bn through a public offering, and a further $225m will be raised by selling a seven per [...]
LAND SECURITIES BUILDING BOOM January 19, 2010 LAND Securities yesterday announced a £655m West End development programme, with buildings due for completion by the summer of 2013. Park House will be the largest development on Oxford Street for 40 years and Wellington House and Selborne House (left) will be built in Victoria. The buildings will be for a mix of office, retail [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 19, 2010 Collins Stewart The investment banking group’s wealth management division has hired Richard Christmas to its new corporate executive and employee trading (CEET) desk. He joins from Credit Suisse, where he worked with Michael Smith, now head of the CEET desk for Collins Stewart, which provides broker services to listed firms, their employees and third-party share [...]
The City’s most fearsome litigator still has plenty of fire in his belly January 19, 2010 Change is on the way at Herbert Smith as David Gold, who over the last 36 years has built a reputation as one of the most fearsome commercial litigators in the country, will stand down after five years as the City law firm’s senior partner in April. In a distinguished career, Gold has represented Abbey [...]
MEETING OF MINDS AS CITY TITANS PARTNER UP January 19, 2010 IT’S not every day you see an alliance struck up between one of the Square Mile’s most outspoken private equity veterans and the only female chief executive of an independent City stockbroker. But when Alchemy Partners founder Jon Moulton yesterday confirmed he had started in his new non-executive chairman role at broker FinnCap, headed up [...]