LONDON 2012 IMAGE OF THE DAY August 5, 2012 Olympic 10,000m champion Mo Farah returned to the stadium last night to collect his gold medal, 24 hours after thrilling the 80,000-strong crowd as he became the first Briton to ever win the event. Throughout the Olympics, City A.M. will be publishing its Olympic Image of the Day. If you have a shot you think [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 5, 2012 AXA Wealth Andrew Smith has been appointed chief operating officer of the wealth management firm’s Elevate investment platform. He joins from Nucleus, where he was responsible for its platform design and build. Smith has also held senior roles at Logica and Thomson Reuters. Mazars The advisory firm has appointed Phil Verity to the position of [...]
BEST of the BROKERS August 5, 2012 CAPITAL & COUNTIES Seymour Pierce has a “buy” rating on the London property investor and developer and has raised its target price from 220p to 233p after solid interim results. The figures provided the broker with confidence that the firm will hit the top end of consensus estimates. It also sees the Earls Court planning [...]
ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR August 5, 2012 We start the week with the latest nominees for the third annual City A.M. awards – our shortlist for Entreprenur of the Year. Some of the world’s great companies were founded in tough economic times, and we are undoubtedly living through dark days now. It takes a clear head to lead a company when all [...]
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR August 5, 2012 SINCE City A.M.’s last awards ceremony in 2011, the legal sector has undergone one of the biggest shake-ups in recent years with the introduction of the Legal Services Act. The introduction of Alternative Business Structures (ABS) on 3 January was a formal acknowledgment of the ripples of change that have been spreading across the legal [...]
Virgin Atlantic swings to full-year loss August 3, 2012 British airline Virgin Atlantic swung to a full-year loss as higher fuel costs and tough economic conditions took their toll, it said today The carrier, founded by serial entrepreneur Richard Branson, posted a pretax operating loss of £80.2m in the year to the end of February compared to a profit of £18.5m in 2010/11. The [...]
IAG to restructure Iberia as group slumps to H1 loss August 3, 2012 The owner of British Airways and Iberia has announced a wholesale restructuring of the underperforming Spanish airline as it tumbled to a first-half group loss and cut its full-year earnings guidance. Willie Walsh, the head of International Airlines Group, said the Iberia reorganisation would mean shedding jobs and reshaping its network. “Iberia’s problems are deep [...]
Heineken agrees deal to take control of APB August 3, 2012 Global brewer Heineken agreed a $4bn-plus (£2.6bn) deal today to take control of Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) by agreeing to buy a stake in the Singapore-based brewer from partner Fraser and Neave (F&N) said sources with knowledge of the situation. Heineken had given F&N a deadline of today to agree to a sale, and a [...]
Plunge in new orders hits July Eurozone business August 3, 2012 A sharp drop in new orders compounded the misery among Eurozone companies during July, a business survey showed today forcing firms to lay off staff at the fastest pace since January 2010. Markit’s composite purchasing managers index (PMI), gauging the health of thousands of Eurozone companies, rose marginally in July to 46.5 from 46.4 in [...]
John Lewis sales growth held back by weather August 3, 2012 John Lewis, Britain’s biggest department store group, said sales growth eased last week, with demand sapped by a spell of hot weather and the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games. The employee-owned firm said today department store sales increased 6.2 per cent year on year to £56.6m in the week to 28 July. In [...]