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 [...]
UBS hires Magnus to run investment banking units July 26, 2009 SWISS bank UBS has hired Bank of America-Merrill Lynch’s Keith Magnus to head up its investment banking operations in Singapore and Malaysia. Magnus, who previously ran BoA-Merrill Lynch’s Singaporean and Malaysian investment banking activities, was at the heart of some of the bank’s biggest deals in the past year. Magnus will report to Matthew Hanning [...]
Brief respite in UK travel insolvencies July 26, 2009 THERE was a marked drop in the number of UK travel companies falling into insolvency in the second quarter of the year, new figures have revealed, after the sector enjoyed a boost from the warm weather and the weakness of sterling. Business advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said that just 12 UK travel firms succumbed to the [...]
WILL WE SEE A RETURN TO GROWTH LATER THIS YEAR? July 26, 2009 MICHAEL SAUNDERS CITIGROUP We expect that the second quarter will indeed turn out to be the last quarter of recession – ie, falling GDP. But we expect a slow recovery, held back by high private debts and poor credit availability. We expect it will take about 20 quarters before GDP regains its pre-recession peak.VICKY REDWOOD [...]
Music maestros are on song about credit crunch July 26, 2009 Few market watchers saw this crisis coming and lots of guests we speak to at CNBC ask why we should take advice from so–called experts who didn’t predict the downturn. So why not turn elsewhere? Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley published a report on the media industry by a 15 year-old work experience boy. In [...]
Meet the deal-maker extraordinaire who hopes the crisis will end in 2010 July 26, 2009 It is hard to escape the feeling that Slaughter and May’s Nigel Boardman is ever so slightly bored. Given that he is London’s top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyer, and that we are still in the midst of a bitter recession which has led to a dramatic reduction in deal-making, this is not exactly surprising. [...]
THEATRICAL LORD TURNER PROVES HIMSELF A NATURAL ON THE STAGE July 23, 2009 MY, OH my, but our Lord Turner isn’t half one to soak up the limelight. Commanding the stage at yesterday’s annual public meeting, the FSA’s chairman put a sweating, red-faced Hector Sants to shame under the lights as he fielded questions from the floor with panache, authoritatively pointing out the chosen ones like the best [...]
FSA BOSS SANTS TO GO DOWN FIGHTING July 23, 2009 HECTOR Sants, boss of the embattled Financial Services Authority, yesterday launched a robust defence of the City’s existing regulatory structure in defiance of Tory proposals, fuelling talk that he is preparing to step down within the next few months. City sources told City A.M. Sants will retire from the regulator either before or when his [...]
GLOBAL MARKETS SURGE ON STRONG EARNINGS AND DATA July 23, 2009 INVESTORS were cheered yesterday as stocks on both sides of the Atlantic made healthy gains on largely positive corporate and economic news. In the UK, the FTSE 100 rose for a ninth day in a row by 1.5 per cent to 4,559.80, the highest closing level since early January. It was the longest winning run [...]
Water firms hit by Ofwat July 23, 2009 SHARES in utility companies dropped yesterday after water regulator Ofwat ordered firms to reduce household bills by four per cent over the next five years, potentially denting profits massively. Analysts warned that Ofwat’s price limits combined with new requirements on infrastructure spending would see dividends slashed across the sector. Water firms had hoped to raise [...]