CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 5, 2012 Warburg Pincus The private equity firm focused on growth investing has announced the appointment of Francesco Granata as an executive-in-residence, focusing on the healthcare sector. Granata will be based in Warburg Pincus’ London office, and will help the firm assess new investments in the biopharmaceutical sector. He has over 35 years experience in the pharmaceutical [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS March 5, 2012 BABCOCK Panmure Gordon has upgraded engineering company Babcock to “buy” and raises its target price from 760p to 850p. The broker is impressed by last week’s £200m contract win with the Royal Australian Navy to provide support for the Navy’s eight Anzac class frigates, and has taken the decision to upgrade the target due to [...]
OFT will not review BMI sale March 5, 2012 The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has said the European Commission was best placed to review IAG’s proposed acquisition of Lufthansa’s UK unit bmi and that there is no need for a separate British review of the deal. But the consumer watchdog said it would continue to work closely with the EC to assess whether [...]
Eurozone retail sales improve in January March 5, 2012 Eurozone retail sales increased slightly in January, according to figures from the EU. Retail sales in countries that use the Euro increased by 0.3 per cent in January while there was a 0.7 per cent increase across all 27 EU nations. The biggest improvements were in Latvia, Slovenia and Romania. But another set of figures, [...]
Facilities Management – The Road to Recovery March 5, 2012 Difficult times: Facilities management providers are supporting UK businesses in unstable economic conditions.
Insurer AIG selling $6bn of AIA shares to repay US government March 5, 2012 Insurer American International Group (AIG) is selling part of its stake in Hong Kong-based AIA Group to raise about $6bn (£3.8bn) to help the firm pay off the US government. AIG is looking to place some 1.7 billion AIA shares in a range of HK$27.15-27.50 per share – a discount of up to 7 per [...]
Credit Suisse to buy back $4.4bn in securities March 5, 2012 Credit Suisse said it planned to buy back up to 4bn Swiss francs ($4.4bn) in outstanding securities in a bid to comply with the new Swiss and Basel III global capital adequacy rules. The tender was for public Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruments, Credit Suisse said. “Credit Suisse continues to take a proactive approach [...]
FTSE pegged back by China growth fears March 5, 2012 Uncertainty over global growth dragged on investor sentiment in early trading along with a a renewed surge in oil prices. Brent crude climbed back up near $124 a barrel as another refiner announced cuts to Iranian imports, feeding fears of a supply crunch as the West presses ahead with sanctions on Tehran. Copper prices, however, [...]
Service sector growth slows March 5, 2012 Britain’s dominant services sector grew less than expected in February, but still indicated the economy is picking up after a slump late last year, a survey showed. The Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for services fell to 53.8 from 56.0 in January, which had been a 10-month peak. The latest reading was below forecasts for [...]
China cuts growth target March 5, 2012 Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao cut his nation’s 2012 growth target to an eight-year low of 7.5 per cent and made boosting consumer demand the year’s first priority as Beijing looks to wean the economy off its reliance on external demand and foreign capital. He lowered the target from a longstanding annual goal of eight per [...]