OLYMPIC MEDIA BUZZ LONDON 2012 PARTNERS April 29, 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 18 April to Wednesday 25 April. Samsung has done well in our rankings, more or [...]
Private equity rides to rescue of failing firms April 29, 2012 PRIVATE equity firms were once known as Barbarians at the Gate – after KKR’s $25bn leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in 1988 was immortalised in a bestseller of that name – but their image has picked up, at least according to one expert. Peter Hemington, M&A partner at BDO, said buyout firms are no longer [...]
Winterflood’s mysterious bash April 29, 2012 IT’S the end of April, which can only mean one thing: it’s Christmas party season for City stalwart Winterflood Securities. The market maker’s festive parties are famed for two things: the vast quantity of alcohol up for grabs, and the yearly theme, with guests being treated to royal wedding, James Bond and school disco knees-ups [...]
ECB faces tricky choice on rates April 29, 2012 APPROPRIATELY, the European Central Bank holds its monthly policy-setting meeting in Barcelona this week. Not that it can do much to ease the pain of Catalan football supporters post Barca’s Champions League exit and the loss of their coach – but at least they’ll get a firsthand account of what’s going on at the frontline [...]
BEST of the BROKERS April 29, 2012 BRITISH LAND JP Morgan Cazenove said it has “taken the plunge” and upgraded the property giant to “overweight” with a price target of 580p, due to its recent share price underperformance compared to peers. The broker thinks British Land could step up to “play Champions League” property development by demerging specialised divisions, such as the [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 29, 2012 SPC The Society of Pensions Consultants has announced that Roger Mattingly has been elected society president, with effect from 1 June. He succeeds Kevin LeGrand, head of technical services at Buck Consultants. Mattingly is a board director at JLT Benefit Solutions and has sat on the SPC council for the past thirteen years. R3 Lee [...]
Barclays shareholders revolt with a quarter voting against executive pay deals April 27, 2012 Barclays chairman Marcus Agius (pictured) has apologised to shareholders for badly communicating its pay policy to them, and promised higher dividends in future in an attempt to take the sting out of a row over the bank’s remuneration policy. More than a quarter of shareholders voted against remuneration packages including a multi-million pound deal for [...]
Lloyds ends exclusive branch sale talks with Co-op April 27, 2012 Lloyds has ended its exclusive talks with The Co-op to sell 632 branches, allowing it to discuss a possible deal with rival suitor NBNK. Lloyds said the exclusivity period with Co-op ended on Friday, and it will have detailed talks with NBNK if it is satisfied the start-up can get regulatory clearance for a deal. [...]
Credit Suisse hit by shareholder anger over pay April 27, 2012 Almost a third of Credit Suisse shareholders rejected the bank’s pay plan on Friday and UK rival Barclays was braced for a similar revolt as investors vented their fury at executive pay deals and called for a bigger slice of profits. Credit Suisse said 31.6 pct of investors who voted opposed the bank’s remuneration plan, [...]
Samsung hits record $5.2bn profit thanks to Galaxy April 27, 2012 Samsung Electronics posted a record $5.2bn (£3.2bn) quarterly profit as it shifted over 20,000 Galaxy smartphones an hour in January-March, outselling Apple’s iPhone in a duel for the lucrative high end of the mobile industry. Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s South Korean group, whose $190bn market value is 11 times that of Japanese rival Sony, sold 93.5m [...]