HS2 go-ahead expected today January 9, 2012 THE DEPARTMENT for Transport is today expected to give the thumbs up to High Speed 2, the £32bn project which will link London with the north by high speed rail. Justine Greening will also reveal measures to soften the worst effects of the planned railway, which has been criticised in the belief it will disrupt [...]
Santander is ahead of its capital goals January 9, 2012 SANTANDER has raised all the necessary capital to meet regulators’ demands six months ahead of schedule, the bank declared yesterday. It said that it had raised the lion’s share – €6.83bn (£5.6bn) – through a controversial bond conversion known as Valores Santander. The project involved activating a clause that converted a huge slice of its [...]
Virgin picks former RBS executives January 9, 2012 VIRGIN Money has unveiled the full executive team that will be charged with embarking upon its “quest for better banking” for the high street – with a strong showing for staff formerly employed by bailed-out behemoth Royal Bank of Scotland. The full lineup includes four senior managers who used to work at RBS, including chief [...]
VIRGIN: THE TOP TEAM January 9, 2012 CHAIRMAN SIR DAVID CLEMENTI City grandee David Clementi is a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, a role he held until 2002. He has also been chairman of FTSE 100 insurer Prudential and chief executive of private bank Kleinwort Benson. CHIEF EXECUTIVE JAYNE-ANNE GADHIA Jayne-Anne Gadhia has worked at a range of RBS and Virgin [...]
UniCredit in fresh share price plunge January 9, 2012 TRADING in shares and rights in Italy’s largest lender, UniCredit, had to be suspended for the second time in a week yesterday after falling too quickly. The 12.8 per cent fall yesterday means that the bank has lost nearly half of its value in just one week since giving details of its heavily discounted rights [...]
Lloyds boss returns with a smile for the cameras January 9, 2012 LLOYDS chief executive António Horta-Osório returned to his first day of work after two months’ sick leave yesterday, taking five minutes out of his morning to pose for photos outside its Gresham Street HQ. His return came as the bank appointed Rothschild, the investment bank, to advise on its options for its business in the [...]
Goldman to slash pay by nearly half January 9, 2012 GOLDMAN Sachs is expected to take an axe to pay in this year’s bonus round following a dramatic fall-off in revenues. Some senior bankers expect to see their pay packages fall as much as 40 per cent, while some reports suggested that pay for partners’ at the very top could halve. But some bonuses will [...]
Firms lending cash to banks January 9, 2012 BLUE-CHIP names like Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Peugeot are among firms bailing out Europe’s ailing banks in a reversal of the established roles of clients and lenders. One source with knowledge of the so-called repo deals or short-term secured lending, said the two US pharmaceutical groups and French carmaker were the latest to sign [...]
Hoare Govett bidder loses top executive January 9, 2012 ORIEL Securities, the expanding stockbroking firm that is bidding for Hoare Govett, has lost one of its senior executives after less than a year. Glenn Poulter, who joined Oriel as head of equities in December 2010, has left the firm after asking chief executive Simon Bragg whether he could extend his settling-in period during which [...]
There’s no let up in City’s race to consolidate January 9, 2012 IT seems there is going to be no slackening of the consolidation process taking place in the financial advisory sector. Evolution has already been swallowed up by Investec, with fairly unpleasant consequences for many of its employees; Collins Stewart Hawkpoint is busy sorting out the finer details of its deal with the Canadian group Canaccord, [...]