WTO told to speed up talks November 29, 2009 European businesses are getting frustrated over the slow progress in the Doha Round of Trade talks and Businesseurope, the European Union business lobby, yesterday called on the World Trade Organisation (WTO)to speed up the negotiations. Eight years ago the WTO launched its first ever development round of trade talks in Qatar’s capital city. But the [...]
Property market bottoms out, Barclays Wealth says November 29, 2009 CONFIDENCE in both residential and commercial property is on the up, a report out from Barclays Wealth will show today. The survey, the tenth in a series from the global wealth manager and the Economist Intelligence Unit, will show that twice as many respondents (35 per cent) say they are planning to increase their property [...]
New guidelines released to counter soaring cash delivery vehicle robberies November 29, 2009 AN EXPECTED surge in attacks on cash delivery vehicles has prompted the British Retail Consortium (BRC) to publish fresh security guidelines today. The end of the year is regarded as a peak season for attacks, with most occuring in the final quarter of 2008. The first 10 months of 2009 have already seen 15 per [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 29, 2009 Norton RoseThe law firm has appointed Kate Alliott to its banking practice in London as a debt capital markets partner.Alliott joins from legal giant Clifford Chance, where she was a partner in the capital markets group. She has wide-ranging debt capital markets and structured finance experience, with a specialist focus on project bonds and infrastructure [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 29, 2009 BNP PARIBASAhead of an investor day, Evolution believes BNP shares are very cheap after it played a blinder with the acquisition of Fortis. Evo values Fortis at €22bn, while BNP paid just €6.5bn for 75 per cent. It expects the Belgium retail market to offer exceptional profitability as rivals give up market share due to [...]
Myners set to examine bank profitability November 29, 2009 CITY minister Lord Myners will delve deeper into how investment banks are generating a crop of bumper profits next month, after highlighting concerns that they may have been generated unfairly as a result of taxpayer bailouts or taking advantage of market chatter. Myners will stop short of launching a full-scale official investigation but will return [...]
Lords anxious over Brussels’ hold on City November 29, 2009 MEMBERS of the House of Lords have written to City minister Lord Myners to highlight the need for the government to take a tougher stance on negotiations with Brussels over the reform of financial supervision in the European Union. The Lords EU sub-committee on economic and financial affairs is concerned that under current proposals, the [...]
Norton Rose is ready to expand in Asia on the back of its latest deal November 29, 2009 There is light at the end of the economic night – of that Peter Martyr is fairly certain. But the CEO of NortonRose, the City law firm, wants to make sure we are not facing a false dawn before he gets too excited. As he puts it: “The financial crisis has moved so quickly that [...]
Dubai reminds traders that stocks are on fragile ground November 29, 2009 DUBAI’S inability to meet its debt payments rattled stock markets across the world last week as the shock announcement sparked new worries about the health of the global economy and governments’ abilities to service their debt. The FTSE 100 index dropped 171 points on Thursday before regaining some of its losses in Friday’s trading. Financial [...]
Investors will hate consequences of a hung parliament November 29, 2009 POLLING DAY is still about six months away but already the battle lines are being drawn between the two main political parties. The general election will add another dimension of uncertainty to 2010, which is already shaping up to be a very volatile year for investors. The general election is a scheduled event so it [...]
