Wednesday looks for 20m June 2, 2009 SHEFFIELD Wednesday’s chairman Lee Strafford has just appointed US banking advisers to help him flush out a £20m investment for the Championship football club. Strafford, who co-founded PlusNet before selling it to BT in 2007 for £67m, has just returned from the US where he and Wednesday chief executive Nick Parker met a number of [...]
Penna profits boosted by turmoil in the job market June 2, 2009 HUMAN resources consultancy Penna Consulting yesterday reported a trebling in full year profits as it continues to capitalise on increased demand from firms juggling their recruitment strategies in the downturn. Pre-tax profit soared 176 per cent to £6m for the year to March, while revenue grew 30 per cent to £63.2m. Penna said it saw [...]
WESTFIELD CUTS CHARGES June 2, 2009 WESTFIELD shopping centre yesterday bowed to pressure from retailers by dropping its service charges at its White City mall from £13.94 a sq ft to £12.98. Retailers were angered in September after the group hiked its fees sharply from the £8.50 initially agreed. Westfield said the reductions were part of a six month trading review [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 2, 2009 DeloitteThe business advisory firm has appointed Anne Hamilton to lead its insurance tax team. Hamilton was previously a tax partner at rival PricewaterhouseCoopers. “In light of Solvency II we anticipate that there will be considerable restructuring work to make sure that insurance companies’ balance sheets have capacity,” said Deloitte head of UK insurance Mark Fitzpatrick. [...]
LMS set to join main market June 2, 2009 LMS Capital, which has benefited as larger private equity firms have been unable to snap up stricken small companies due to capital constraints, is joining its bigger rivals on the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) main market. The group is leaving AIM for the Official List after runaway growth since its June 2006 listing, and will [...]
Barker joins Fink at ISAM June 2, 2009 Rod Barker, a leading figure in the global hedge fund industry, has joined hedge fund “godfather” Stanley Fink at his International Standard Asset Management (ISAM) hedge fund. Barker will work alongside Fink as a director, and will focus on the group’s plans to launch several new funds in coming months. The group’s flagship Global Macro [...]
BAE plans $1.5bn bond issue June 2, 2009 Defence contractor BAE Systems is planning to issue a $1.5bn (£1bn) bond with maturities at five years and 10 years, an official at one of the banks managing the sale said yesterday. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Barclays have been named to manage the two-part issue, the official said.
Shell pushes down costs June 2, 2009 Royal Dutch Shell said it had seen costs come down in the last few months as it renegotiated with project contractors. “As far as projects are concerned and normal operating costs, we see a lot of our renegotiations… enter with lower costs at this moment,” chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said.
Making sense of the legal consultation game June 2, 2009 ARE you feeling bemused? You are not alone. The City’s legal framework is undergoing profound change in the form of consultations that could define the direction in which the legal profession is heading. The point of consultations is to generate considered input from a wider number of people, leading to improved proposals. The problem for [...]
Barclays bet makes Abu Dhabi 1.5bn June 2, 2009 AN Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund sold more than 11 per cent of Barclays yesterday, pocketing a £1.5bn profit less than seven months after making its £3.5bn investment. In an incredibly fast turn-around, Credit Suisse placed around £3.5bn of instruments – which were due to convert to Barclays shares by the end of the month [...]
