Gartmore lists at 220p per share December 13, 2009 Fund management house Gartmore will list on the stock exchange today at 220p per share, significantly below the 270p mid-point it had hoped for. Gartmore’s flotation is the first initial public offering of a private-equity owned company since the onset of the credit crunch in 2007. While its share price will now imply a market [...]
Q & A : THE BANK BONUS TAX December 13, 2009 Q. WHICH FIRMS ARE CONCERNED THEY MAY BE AFFECTED BY THE BONUS TAX? A.The Treasury originally said the tax would only hit the 397 deposit-holding banks and building societies which hold a banking licence from the Financial Services Authority, as well as their subsidiaries. However, the rules have since blurred; the Treasury has already stipulated [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 13, 2009 THE SUNDAYS The Sundays Telegraph DEBENHAMS DIRECTORS GET BUMPER PAYOUTS Directors of Debenhams have received bumper payouts, despite the retailer cutting its dividend payment to shareholders last year. Rob Templeman, chief executive, saw his package increase by a third to £1.24m after he was granted a bonus of £428,073. Michael Sharp, deputy chief executive, saw [...]
People don’t come here for the weather December 13, 2009 In 1733, Voltaire, one of France’s greatest thinkers, wrote a series of letters on the English nation, describing some of the extraordinary going-ons he had discovered during his exile to this country. The findings scandalised many of his French readers, then a truly statist and anti-capitalist nation. “Go into the London Stock Exchange – a [...]
Tory lead narrows in poll December 13, 2009 THE chances of a hung Parliament looked that much greater yesterday, after a poll from YouGov put Labour just nine points behind the Conservatives, who registered 40 per cent support. The City is concerned that a narrow majority for an incoming government, or even worse, no majority at all, will make it impossible to take [...]
Politicians and the City need to trust each other December 7, 2009 This coming week is the pre-Budget report, and both leading political parties are going for growth. But do they know what that means? James Carville, the campaign manager of Bill Clinton’s Presidential campaign coined the phrase which led Clinton to victory: “it’s the economy, stupid”. Faced with an incumbent president who had 80 per cent [...]
Nat Ex woos Tube boss for driving seat December 7, 2009 TUBE LINES boss Dean Finch found himself in demand yesterday, as struggling transport group National Express tried to secure his services as its next chief executive. But the tube maintenance group, which looks after the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, is eager to hold on to Finch. “He will now be having talks with the [...]
TAKING STOCK December 7, 2009 EQUITY trading across the London Stock Exchange group dipped sharply in November as the UK’s biggest bourse was hit by turbulence in the global markets and aggressive pricing strategies from rivals. In total 16.4m equity trades worth £149bn were carried out over the month, during which the average daily number of trades fell by a [...]
Sberbank misses profit expectations December 7, 2009 Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, missed its forecast for its third quarter net profit but analysts took heart from slowing bad loan growth which they said could pave the way for a stronger performance in the coming months. The state-run bank posted a net profit of 4.2bn roubles (£87.4m) in January-September, undershooting analysts’ forecasts of 5.1bn [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 7, 2009 Reed SmithThe law firm has appointed Graham Green as a partner in its employment group in London. Green joins from rival McDermott Will & Emery, and has also worked in the employment department at Linklaters. His practice covers all types of discrimination claims, including race, sex, age and disability discrimination, as well as claims over [...]