Hansteen to raise 195m to invest in bargain British commercial properties June 23, 2009 EUROPEAN property investment firm Hansteen yesterday tapped the market for £194.6m to fund a re-entry into the UK market and take advantage of bargain commercial property investments in the recession. Hansteen’s placing of 267.8m shares at 75p a share, fully underwritten by broker KBC Peel Hunt, is the largest secondary fundraising on the Aim market [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 23, 2009 AvivaMatt Saker is to join the savings, investment and insurance group as its new chief actuary for Europe. Saker joins from Watson Wyatt, where he worked for over 18 years, becoming a partner in 2003. In his new role, he will be responsible for capital management, life and general insurance reserving and market-consistent embedded value [...]
IDEALISM ISN’T LOST ON CITY ART CROWD June 23, 2009 IF THERE are any City types out there itching to use the dwindling financial job prospects as a catalyst for a change of career, they could do worse than to heed the advice of Thomas Ostenberg. Just before the recession of the early Nineties, Ostenberg decided to leave his career as an independent financial consultant, [...]
STAVELEY SNUBBED June 23, 2009 BLACKROCK rejected backing worth $2.8bn (£1.7bn) from Middle Eastern power broker Amanda Staveley to help it purchase Barclays Global Investors (BGI). A source close to the deal confirmed she had offered the sum but said BlackRock rejected it due to a lack of detail about the identity of her Gulf backers.
BSkyB ordered to pay out legal costs June 23, 2009 THE Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has ordered BSkyB to pay the government and Competition Commission’s legal costs associated with the broadcaster’s appeal to keep its 17.9 per cent stake in ITV. BSkyB is fighting an ongoing battle to retain the stake, which it bought for £940m in 2006. The deal blocked a potential takeover of [...]
Banks launch overdraft bid in the Lords June 23, 2009 A LEGAL case to determine whether banking overdraft fees can be challenged on grounds of fairness kicked off in the House of Lords yesterday, with seven banks and one building society fighting to overturn an earlier ruling against them. The lenders are contesting a judgement by the Court of Appeal that charges imposed by the [...]
Report warns on failing firms June 23, 2009 A staggering 111 businesses are expected to fail every day in 2010, according to the latest Industry Watch report by BDO Stoy Hayward, out today. The report predicts that low interest rates and policy measures aimed at boosting the economy will not halt the rate of UK business failures until at least 2011. Meanwhile rising [...]
Mirror announces job cuts June 23, 2009 Trinity Mirror has announced that it is seeking voluntary redundancies from employees at its national newspapers as it cuts costs to tackle challenging trading conditions. The scheme will run to the end of this year, but the company did not disclose the number of jobs it aims to cut nor the savings it hopes to [...]
Travelzest boss to step down June 23, 2009 Chris Mottershead has quit his position at the helm of specialist tour operator Travelzest, despite confirmation that the firm has dropped an investigation into a potential misappropriation of funds on his part. Travelzest said Mottershead’s suspension had been lifted. The company said the allegation of misappropriation was “unsubstantiated” and apologised for any upset and distress.
OECD jobless to hit 57m in 2010 June 23, 2009 New forecasts from the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show unemployment rising to nearly 10 per cent on average next year, compared to the 7.8 per cent forecast in April. This would mean that more than 57m people would be unemployed in the OECD by the end of 2010.