Stelios boosts bid to oust Rake July 3, 2012 SIR Stelios Haji-Ioannou yesterday escalated his efforts to oust Sir Mike Rake as EasyJet chairman by filing papers for an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders. “Everyone can see Mike Rake’s deep conflicts of interest and entrenched positions in the disgraced City establishment,” he claimed, questioning the former Barclays boss’s ability to run a public company [...]
Treasury wants to jail reckless bank directors July 3, 2012 RECKLESS bankers who take excessive risks could end up in jail under plans unveiled by the Treasury last night. Following the Financial Services Authority report that revealed widespread management failures in the run-up to the collapse of RBS, the government also wants to make it harder for the bosses of failed banks to take up [...]
City regulator to review market supervision after Libor scandal July 3, 2012 THE FINANCIAL Services Authority (FSA) is reviewing how wholesale markets are supervised following the interest rate-setting scandal, its chairman Adair Turner said yesterday. “There are no free lunches, and shoddy wholesale practice is not a victimless act, even in those cases where it is not defined as a crime,” Turner told the watchdog’s final annual [...]
Barroso: Bank sins show need for a Tobin tax July 3, 2012 BANKING scandals such as the Libor fixing case have strengthened the case for imposing a Tobin tax on the financial sector, the president of the European Commission said yesterday. Jose Manuel Barroso praised the EU’s moves towards tougher regulation of finance. “Whilst the proposal for a financial transaction tax has unfortunately not met with unanimous [...]
BlackRock buys SwissRe private equity business July 3, 2012 US INVESTMENT manager BlackRock is buying Swiss Re’s European private equity arm, marking the second deal for a private equity fund manager in as many days as sellers contend with a new regulatory landscape and tough trading. Swiss Re’s deal to sell its $7.5bn (£4.8bn) private equity and infrastructure fund of funds business follows hot on [...]
Swiss split particles while funds join forces July 3, 2012 IT’S set to be an explosive Fourth of July. Quite apart from the fireworks at the Treasury select committee, today in Geneva the atom-smashers at Cern will announce signs of the elusive Higgs boson, a key component to explaining the property of mass in the universe. Winton Capital was said to be recruiting in Geneva [...]
Wood Mac stake fetches £1.1bn July 3, 2012 HELLMAN & Friedman will take a majority stake in energy analysis group Wood Mackenzie in a deal that values the company at £1.1bn including debt, marking a relatively quick turnaround for seller Charterhouse in a sluggish market. The deal comes just three years after Charterhouse bought the firm – which has over the years been [...]
HGCapital sells SHL for $660m July 3, 2012 PRIVATE equity group HgCapital has sold employment consultancy SHL to larger rival Corporate Executive Board for $660m (£420.6m), having quadrupled the value of the firm within six years. HgCapital, which bought the firm for £100m in 2006, has sold out from SHL after helping to almost double the firm’s revenues and treble its earnings. HgCapital [...]
Man Utd unveil IPO in New York to pay off debts July 3, 2012 MANCHESTER United last night filed documents for an initial public offering (IPO) of shares to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The size of the offering has initially been listed at $100m yet analysts expect that the figure could change significantly, with the price and quantity of shares yet to be decided. The [...]
Asia Pacific growth helps give Clifford Chance bigger profits July 3, 2012 CLIFFORD CHANCE, the UK’s biggest law firm by revenues, yesterday raised the bar for its magic circle competitors as it announced a seven per cent rise in turnover. Revenues at the firm were £1,303m in the year to 30 April, up from £1,219m in the previous 12 months. Profits per equity partner also grew by [...]