How the Baker Street brigade are taking on the Big Four accountants June 22, 2009 YOU get the impression when you meet him that Simon Michaels, the managing partner of BDO Stoy Hayward, wants a lot of things – and one of the first is a larger slice of the UK accounting pie. Michaels, at 42 the youngest person to lead the UK’s sixth-largest professional services business, was elected to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 22, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES BRAMDEAN FUND POSTS HEAVY FALLBramdean Alternatives, the listed fund of alternative funds, has posted its worst monthly fall in net asset value in sterling terms since its inception two years ago. The fund, which is managed by Nicola Horlick’s Bramdean Asset Management, suffered a 7.7 per cent fall in net asset value to [...]
How the King of the UK back office plans to keep his business growing June 21, 2009 IT is fascinating to listen to David Andrews talk about his business. For most of us, back offices may seem deadly boring – but when you discover Andrew’s passion for Xchanging, the FTSE 250 back office outsourcing giant he founded 10 years ago, you suddenly realise just how true it is that finance and corporate [...]
The post-trade space is facing a revolution following Mifid June 17, 2009 IN THE fast and exciting world of trading it is all too easy to overlook the importance of the necessary but rather administrative post-trade activities, of which clearing and settlement are the most important. But these play a vital role in the functioning of the European securities markets. And the European clearing and settlement space [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 16, 2009 AIB GroupThe UK-based subsidiary of Allied Irish Bank has appointed Nick Treble to the position of managing director. Treble, 49, has worked at the bank for 27 years, joining in 1982 as a trainee in its treasury department. He subsequently held posts in London as head of treasury and general manager for capital markets, before being appointed group treasurer in 2001. He became chief risk officer in early 2008. Financial Services Authority The City watchdog has appointed Ken [...]
Economy fears hit oil, miners and banks but defensives fly June 16, 2009 THE FTSE 100 closed 0.1 per cent higher yesterday, recovering only a small part of Monday’s sharp falls as strength in defensive stocks was countered by falls in oils, miners, and banks. At the close the FTSE 100 was up 2.56 points at 4,328.57, rallying slightly after hitting a six-week closing low on Monday when [...]
US falls on gloomy stats and Best Buy June 16, 2009 US stocks slipped yesterday as mixed economic data and disappointing sales figures from giant electronics retailer Best Buy spurred worries about an anemic recovery. After a three-month run that lifted the S&P 500 as much as 40 per cent from 12-year lows, analysts said the economy needs to start showing real improvement to support optimism [...]
WORST CITY FIRMS TO JOIN ROLL OF HONOUR June 14, 2009 FANCY awards dinners have a reputation for being duller than dishwater, so it’s refreshing to hear of an upcoming ceremony that aims to break the mould. That’s right: the Sharecrazy Worst Company of the Year awards are back by popular demand, having gone down a treat with frazzled City folk last time around at a [...]
Disastrous for Labour, good for the Tories June 7, 2009 IT was a disastrous night for Labour, and an even worse one for Gordon Brown, now a lame duck prime minister who cannot even appoint the cabinet of his choice. But Labour’s crushing defeat – it got just 21.3 per cent of the vote in London, was beaten in Wales by the Tories for the [...]
The robots are back, and this time they’re noisy June 4, 2009 TERMINATOR SALVATIONCert: 12ADESPITE the hi-tech sci-fi and bone-crunching, metal limb-crushing action sequences, the excitement of the first two Terminator movies came from the simple thrill of the chase. The execrable T3 pretty much did for that element, and it’s hardly been revived for the fourth instalment (though a chase sequence does account for the film’s [...]