City cash calls dominate EU July 26, 2009 EQUITY issues in the UK have accounted for 46 per cent of the total issuance in Europe this year so far. The City scramble to raise capital meant giant offerings from HSBC, Rio Tinto and Lloyds Banking Group. Thomson Reuters data shows that of the $129.5bn (£78.8bn) of equity capital market activity seen in Europe [...]
No pain, no gain for banks in return to normality July 26, 2009 The recent announcement by the European Commission on guidelines for restructuring aid to banks exposes the difficult decisions, not to mention the pain, that the whole of our banking system still has to go through to return to normality. Competition is good, but policy to ensure it is a minefield, especially at a cross-border level. [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 26, 2009 ExecutionThe agency broker has appointed Bruce Howitt, formerly a director of Merrill Lynch’s fixed income business, to head up its newly created agency credit division. Howitt, who will become head of European credit at Execution, previously spent six years with Merrill Lynch, where he managed the non-financials trading desk. He has also formerly held senior [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 26, 2009 VOLKSWAGENSociete Generale said the merger between Porsche and Volkswagen (VW) looks to be back on track and reiterated its “Buy” recommendation on the latter. Analyst Eric-Alain Michelis said the deal should allow VW to buy out the sports car giant without taking on its €10bn debt pile. If speculation of the group’s €8bn price tag [...]
IMF predicts more bad debts July 26, 2009 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts seven per cent of European consumer debt will turn bad. Much of that will be in the UK, the continent’s biggest nation of borrowers. IMF estimates say that of US consumer debt totalling $1,914bn (£1,166bn), 14 per cent will turn bad. For Europe, it expects 7 per cent of [...]
BarCap expands Japanese arm July 26, 2009 Barclays Capital (BarCap) has beefed up its Japanese operations, adding around 200 staff ahead of a possible move to larger headquarters in Tokyo. The increased headcount is part of BarCap’s efforts to generate 50 per cent of revenue from outside the UK. Eiji Nakai, chief executive of BarCap in Tokyo said: “To be truly global [...]
Commerzbank revamp near end July 26, 2009 The restructuring of Commerzbank’s investment banking operations is progressing ahead of schedule, the head of the firm’s corporate finance division Roman Schmitt said yesterday. Schmitt said the reorganisation of the German bank’s London arm could be completed by September, beating an earlier target of the end of 2010.
New vehicle to buy properties July 26, 2009 Former Land Securities board director, Mike Hussey, and Neil Jones, the former head of the European unit of Grosevenor are in early talks to launch a £500m investment vehicle to sna up distressed property in the UK and Europe. Hussey stepped down from Land Secs last month when it axed plans for a demerger that [...]
Dire GDP data threatens UK growth hopes July 26, 2009 DESPITE a worse-than-expected contraction in second quarter GDP, the government is still claiming that the economy is still likely to return to growth later this year. But some analysts questioned whether we would indeed see positive GDP growth in the second half of 2009, given the shocking data released on Friday by the Office for [...]
UKFI close to naming chair July 26, 2009 UK FINANCIAL Investments (UKFI) – the body which manages the government’s stakes in Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland – will have a new chairman within weeks, sources said yesterday. The Treasury is leading the search for a candidate to chair UKFI and is believed to have placed Sir David Cooksey, a former [...]