AA plans to raise £200m through share placing March 24, 2015 Roadside recovery business the AA is preparing to raise £200m through a share placing, as part of a refinancing plan aimed at reducing its debt of £2.7bn. The company will also refinance £735m of its senior debt facilities, in plans that could be announced today. Investors who have been approached about the placing are thought [...]
Direct Line CEO gets £2m raise March 24, 2015 Insurance boss Paul Geddes has been granted a pay rise of more than £2m – up from £2.54m in 2013 to £4.62m last year. The Direct Line Group (DLG) chief executive’s pay was revealed in the company’s final results yesterday, which showed pre-tax profits jumped by 12.2 per cent from £407.3m to £456.8m in 2014. [...]
Dark pools set for probe from City watchdog March 24, 2015 Private trading venues called dark pools face a probe from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as the City watchdog wants to investigate potential conflicts of interest. The FCA’s business plan for the year ahead yesterday set out a range of probes across financial services. “We have been considering the risks around dark pools and will [...]
Wall St drops on dollar fears – New York Report March 24, 2015 US stocks fell for a second session yesterday, with equities keeping a tight range that corresponded with currency fluctuations as traders focused on the dollar’s strength and its possible effect on corporate earnings. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 104.9 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 18,011.14, the S&P 500 lost 12.92 points, or 0.61 [...]
HSBC to move 1,000 jobs from Canary Wharf to Birmingham March 24, 2015 HSBC will move 1,000 jobs from its Canary Wharf headquarters to Birmingham from 2017, the bank said today. In a statement today, it added that the jobs will be head office roles at its ring-fenced bank. Under rules due to be set out by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), banks must separate their "core" retail [...]
Five Morrisons execs leave as Potts swings axe March 24, 2015 Five members of Morrisons' management team are on the way out, after new boss David Potts swung his axe. Group customer marketing and digital director Nick Collard, group retail director Martyn Fletcher, group property and strategy director Gordon Mowat, group logistics director Neal Austin and convenience managing director Nigel Robertson are all leaving. "I will [...]
888 Holdings share price jumps as it announces one-off dividend after “record” year March 24, 2015 Investing may be a gamble, but this morning 888 Holdings shareholders won big after the online gaming group recommended a special dividend of 7 cents per share, on top of a final dividend of 4.5 cents per share. The news sent shares up 4.75 per cent at 160p as the market opened. The company said [...]
Missed financial targets at RSA wipe a third off of Stephen Hester’s bonus March 23, 2015 RSA chief executive Stephen Hester has been granted 68 per cent of his potential bonus, with missed financial targets mostly responsible for the loss of nearly one third. Hester’s £939,000 bonus took his total remuneration for 2014 to £2.12m, according to the company’s annual report released yesterday. Hester became embroiled in several pay scandals as [...]
Heron Tower forex trader CWM FX drops website after provider Leverate pulls platform March 23, 2015 CWM FX has pulled the forex trading function from its website after platform provider Leverate Financial Services terminated its working agreement, City A.M. understands. Earlier this month CWM FX referred to a City of London police raid at Heron Tower (100 Bishopsgate) in which 13 people were arrested, and later released on bail. Further details [...]
Finsbury Foods doubles profit as Britons gobble up Disney cakes March 23, 2015 Finsbury Food said yesterday its profit nearly doubled in the first half of the year thanks to its recent acquisition of rival baker Fletchers and soaring demand for Disney’s Frozen celebration cakes. The sponge cake, featuring Olaf the snowman, flew off the shelves at Chistmas, helping to lift sales by 24 per cent to £107.6m. [...]