France Telecom buys Mobinil May 27, 2012 FRANCE Telecom acquired 94 per cent of Egyptian mobile phone company Mobinil in a tender offer worth around £2bn, Egypt’s stock exchange said yesterday, giving the French group control of a top sector player in a volatile but lucrative emerging market. Mobinil, founded by Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris, competes with Vodafone Egypt for dominance of [...]
OLYMPIC MEDIA BUZZ LONDON 2012 PARTNERS May 27, 2012 IN ASSOCIATION with Repskan.com, City A.M. is measuring the relative Olympic media buzz around the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games partners, week by week. The leaderboard, right, reflects their ranking over the past week, in this case from Wednesday 17 May to Wednesday 24 May. As the Olympic Flame took flight on board the [...]
Canada’s Mercom Oil Sands set for £32m float on London’s Aim May 27, 2012 CANADIAN oil exploration company Mercom Oil Sands said it has raised £3.35m through the issue of new shares ahead of its flotation on the Alternative Investment Market tomorrow. The company, which was founded earlier this year to buy and develop oil sands properties in Canada, said it has sold 33.5m shares at a price of [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 27, 2012 Legal & General Property The institutional property fund manager has made several appointments to its research team. Head of research Rob Martin has been promoted to the board of Legal & General Property. He joined the firm from Hammerson in October 2006. Barbora Melezinkova has been appointed performance analyst. She joins from IPD, where she [...]
BEST of the BROKERS May 27, 2012 BREWIN DOLPHIN Numis rates the investment manager “sell” with a target price of 110p ahead of its interim results tomorrow. The broker expects a drop in adjusted earnings per share, from 6.7p a year ago to 4.5p – much lower than consensus estimates of 6.7p. Numis warns that consensus forecasts seem to be overlooking a [...]
US consumer sentiment at highest point in four years May 25, 2012 US consumer sentiment rose to its highest level in more than four years in May as Americans stayed optimistic about the job market, while higher income households expected to see bigger wage increases, according to a new survey. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment rose to 79.3 [...]
HSBC pay plan opposed by 10 per cent of shareholders May 25, 2012 HSBC’s pay plan for directors was opposed by 10.2 per cent of shareholders at the bank’s annual meeting today, less than the previous year as Europe’s biggest bank avoided the kind of shareholder backlash seen by competitors. HSBC said 86.3 per cent of votes cast were in favour of the resolution on remuneration while 13.7 [...]
Former Lloyds anti-fraud boss on £2.5m false expenses charge May 25, 2012 The former head of digital banking fraud and security at state-backed Lloyds bank has been charged with defrauding her employer by submitting £2.5m worth of false expense claims. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says it has authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Jessica Harper with one count of fraud by abuse of position. The CPS said [...]
Dixons on track to make £160m bond repayment May 25, 2012 Europe’s second-biggest electrical goods retailer, said it was well placed to make a crucial £160m bond repayment this year and had agreed a new 300 million pound banking facility. Shares in the firm, which trades as Currys and PC World in the UK, rose seven per cent after it said it was on course to [...]
Bargain hunters help lift FTSE May 25, 2012 The FTSE 100 nosed up this morning as bargain hunters snapped up stocks which have been hit in recent sessions. On Monday the blue chip index was at a six-month low but has clawed back ground since then. Gains in Asia and on Wall Street overnight also served to lift sentiment. Insurer Aviva was the [...]