Tories set out stall to the City January 13, 2010 BUSINESSES from across the capital met at the London Chamber of Commerce yesterday to hear what the future holds for them if the Conservatives come to power. Shadow minister for the City, Mark Hoban MP, led the discussion on a wide range of economic and regulatory issues. City A.M. columnist Stuart Fraser said whoever wins [...]
Google holds crunch talks January 13, 2010 CRUNCH talks took place yesterday between Google and Chinese authorities after the search-engine giant threatened to quit the country. In a direct challenge to the Chinese government, Google said it would pull out of the country unless it’s allowed to offer “unfiltered” internet searches to web users. Google blamed a series of cyber-attacks, possibly state [...]
Evolution forges ahead with debt capital market launch January 13, 2010 BROKER Evolution Securities expects to complete its debut debt capital markets deal before the middle of the year, as it pushes forward with the launch of its new small to mid cap corporate bond trading business to capitalise on the funding gap left by decreasing lending from larger banks. Evolution’s head of fixed income Guy [...]
CITY VIEWS: IS GOOGLE RIGHT TO PULL OUT OF CHINA? January 13, 2010 MARK PRIOR | BRAVURA SOLUTIONS “I agree with it totally. It’s a breach of Google’s rules. It’s about finding a middle balance. It’s going to be impossible to find a middle ground if they are hacking into people’s accounts.” CLINTON LUTTIG | XL CAPITAL “I agree. I don’t believe in China’s policies in stopping people’s [...]
New Japan Airlines chief to lead rescue January 13, 2010 KAZUO Inamori, the founder of electronics maker Kyocera, yesterday agreed to become the new chief executive of Japan Airlines (JAL), as the carrier’s shares plunged ahead of its expected bankruptcy. JAL is likely to file for bankruptcy as early as next week as part of a broader restructuring aimed at reducing debts, slashing about 13,000 [...]
M&B investors should tell Lewis to get serious January 13, 2010 THE row between Mitchells and Butlers’ largest shareholder Joe Lewis and the pub group’s management shows no sign of abating, making the firm’s stock hard to value. If Lewis wants to make a bid for the company, he’d probably have to offer around 340p, making the shares – which closed at 275.5p yesterday – look [...]
Manchester United faces paying top dollar to ensure £500m bond success January 13, 2010 MANCHESTER United may be forced to price its £500m bond at slightly more than a 10 per cent yield, according to one of the City’s high yield analysts. Jonathan Moore at Evolution Securities told City A.M. yesterday that very few of the City of London’s investors would warm to the deal due to its high [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 13, 2010 BARCLAYS Execution has initiated coverage of Barclays with a “buy” rating. The broker said revenues at BarCap should be relatively sustainable due to its diverse fixed income business and revenue growth from its organic investment programme. It also sees Barclays as the best European investment bank on tangible equity to assets. BG GROUP Collins Stewart [...]
Economic cheer at its highest level for two years as 2010 marks turning point January 13, 2010 ECONOMIC optimism is at its highest level for two years according to a business trends report, published yesterday, by accountants and business advisers BDO. The Business Trends output index was up significantly to 99.7 in December from 96.3 in November –?the biggest rise since the end of the early 90s recession. The sharp increase was [...]
Oil falls below $80 a barrel January 13, 2010 Oil prices dropped below $80 a barrel yesterday to the lowest this year, pressured by a US inventory report showing rises in crude and distillate fuel stocks despite severe winter weather. Crude stocks, expected to rise 1.2m barrels, increased by 3.7m, the Energy Information Administration said. And inventories of distillates, forecast to fall, rose by [...]