Zeus Capital triumphs again November 27, 2014 Zeus Capital, the independent boutique investment bank based in London and Manchester named after the Greek god, announced it had raised £106.1m for Quantum Pharma yesterday, defying the inactivity in the new issues market. The firm has now helped raise more than £1bn for small firms this year.
FirstGroup loses out again as East Coast privatised November 27, 2014 FIRSTGROUP has lost out on the fifth and final rail franchise it bid for this year, as the East Coast mainline fell back into the private sector yesterday. A joint operation, run by Stagecoach and Virgin, was announced as the new operator, following a round of submissions for the key north-south rail route. Stagecoach and [...]
Mario Draghi: Eurozone’s future at risk if prosperity does not spread November 27, 2014 Eurozone countries could start to consider leaving the currency union if prosperity does not spread across the area, European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi said yesterday. If countries such as Greece remain permanently less competitive than those like Finland, with higher unemployment and lower growth, “this threatens the essential cohesion of the union”, he said. Draghi [...]
London leads Britain’s enterprise recovery with surge in new firms November 27, 2014 Entrepreneurs set up 84,000 firms in London from 2012 to 2013, official figures showed yesterday, far outstripping any other part of the country. It means London was responsible for 24 per cent of the country’s 346,000 new firms in the year. At the same time, 50,000 firms in the capital closed, or 21 per cent [...]
EU symbolically casts a vote for Google to split November 27, 2014 THE EUROPEAN parliament yesterday overwhelmingly supported a motion yesterday to have anti-trust regulators break up the popular internet search engine Google by a margin of 384 to 174. The body has no power to break up the net giant, but the vote will send out a clear message about whether politicians want regulators to take [...]
Big tobacco warns on trademarks November 27, 2014 AN EXTENSIVE list of business representatives from across the globe have written to the government, arguing that rules mandating plain packaging for cigarettes violates intellectual property rights. “There are ways to regulate effectively in the public interest. Mandating destruction of intellectual property is not among them, and we urge governments to forego it,” the group wrote in [...]
Government plans to name and shame late paying companies November 27, 2014 MINISTERS have announced plans to keep a detailed public record of how long it takes major companies to pay their smaller suppliers, in a bid to stamp out late payments which can cripple small businesses. Business minister Matt Hancock unveiled the plans yesterday, which will record the average payment time; the proportion of invoices paid [...]
A bright new day for Monitise as new backers Santander, Telefonica and MasterCard join November 27, 2014 Monitise co-chief executive and founder Alastair Lukies felt vindicated yesterday after announcing three business giants had backed his mobile money business with a £49.2m investment and would all look to expand their commercial relationships with the company. And although no firm contracts were announced between Monitise and its partners, City A.M. understands that there could [...]
£106m Quantum IPO puts Zeus Capital over £1bn raised November 27, 2014 Zeus Capital has advised on over £1bn worth of funds raised on Aim this year, after securing £106m for Quantum Pharma’s float next month. Quantum, the County Durham-based firm, is set to become the biggest pharmaceutical and biotech float on Aim this year with a valuation of £125m when its shares begin trading on 11 [...]
Bank of Cyprus closes in on its market return November 27, 2014 THE BANK of Cyprus hopes to resume trading on the Cypriot and Greek stock exchanges next month, after a 21-month suspension. The lender also published its prospectus for a retail share offering which it expected to take place in January. A total of 4.6bn shares will be issued in the new offering, which the bank hopes [...]