MYNERS CALLS FOR BANK FEES INQUIRY March 25, 2010 City minister Lord Myners, yesterday urged institutional shareholders to stop being “absentee landlords” and hold their own inquiry into investment banking fees to establish whether banks are operating a “semi-oligopolistic market”. He said: “There is a real opportunity for shareholders to show that they are acting on behalf of their clients and launch a public [...]
Highland Airways calls in PwC as it goes into administration March 25, 2010 HIGHLAND Airways has called in the administrators after discussions with potential investors failed to come to fruition, the company said yesterday. PricewaterhouseCoopers were called in on Wednesday night by board members at the carrier, which operates a fleet of nine aircraft servicing the remote western isles of Scotland. All of the company’s flights have been [...]
LSE trading share falls as rivals up ante March 25, 2010 DAILY trading levels on the London Stock Exchange have dipped by more than a third over the past year, as competition continues to hot up between the traditional bourse and its upstart rivals. Average daily value traded in UK equities on the LSE fell 35 per cent to £4.6bn over the 11 months to the [...]
Goldman is top M&A adviser March 25, 2010 GOLDMAN Sachs has boosted its M&A advisory credentials so far this year with a lucrative workload, pushing it into first place among the world’s top-ranked advisers. Goldman, which recently advised on the mammoth $35.5bn (£23.9bn) acquisition of the Asian assets of AIG by Prudential, topped the table for the first quarter of the year, pushing [...]
Credit Suisse chief Brady is the best paid European investment bank head March 25, 2010 Credit Suisse chief executive Brady Dougan made a total of Sfr19.2m (£12.1m) in 2009, making him the best paid head of a leading bank in Europe. American-born Brady Dougan, who has run the Swiss bank since May 2007, saw his total pay increase seven-fold last year as a result of the bank’s return to profit. [...]
Trader who said he was too successful wins High Court case against SocGen March 25, 2010 A FORMER banker won a court case against his old employer yesterday, France’s Société Générale, after claiming millions of pounds for being dismissed for being “too successful”. Raphael Geys, who was a managing director of European fixed income sales for SocGen, won the case at the High Court in London, but the judge did not [...]
United Utilities tipped for profit March 25, 2010 United Utilities Group, the UK’s largest listed water company, expects a good performance for the fiscal year ending 31 March due to the low cost of financing. Chief executive, Philip Green, said Britain’s largest publicly traded water company continues to benefit from a robust financing position, having headroom to cover projected financing needs through early [...]
Recession breeds loyalty March 25, 2010 More than a quarter of employees in the financial sector surveyed feel they are more loyal to their employer as a direct result of a higher level of engagement between workers and bosses. This increase in positive management, good company morale, active communication and overall improvement in the work environment are due to the economic [...]
US jobless claims fall sharply March 25, 2010 The number of US workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance fell sharply last week, while the number of those on continued benefits was the lowest since December 2008, a government report showed yesterday. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 442,000 in the week ended 20 March, the US [...]
Next profits up thanks to fashion sense March 25, 2010 NEXT saw profits jump by 18 per cent last year as it reacted more quickly to changes in fashion. Pre-tax profits rose to £505.3m, with sales totalling £3.41bn up from £3.27bn last year. The company said the spending drop on the high street in the recession had not been as bad as feared. Next, which [...]