Law giants hit by M&A drought July 5, 2010 ■ Linklaters’ revenues down by 8.8 per cent ■ Allen & Overy’s revenues contract by 4 per cent ■ Clifford Chance is set to reveal a 5 per cent sales drop THE UK’s largest law firms have suffered a blow from a two-year M&A drought that has forced them to look beyond Britain’s shores for [...]
Results fall short as executive pay surges July 4, 2010 REMUNERATION committees at the UK’s largest companies are demonstrating a marked failure to adequately link executive pay with performance, according to a damning new survey to be published today. While the median remuneration for chief executives at FTSE 100 companies has risen five per cent to £3.1m in the past two years, earnings per share [...]
E&Y to get its first non-exec July 4, 2010 ERNST & YOUNG is to appoint non-executive directors to its global advisory board, becoming the first of the big four auditors to announce its plans to fall in with the new audit code. The firm will announce the names of the four directors after the summer, and will go beyond the requirements of this year’s [...]
Austerity won’t cause a double-dip July 4, 2010 WHENEVER the stock market tanks for an extended period of time – three weeks and 10 per cent seem to be a good rule of thumb – a strange mix of panic and excitement invariably breaks out in some quarters of the City, aided and abbetted by the media. Inboxes fill up with excited notes [...]
Barnier mulls tough rules July 4, 2010 THE EU’S internal markets commissioner strengthened his pledge to crack down on financial derivates yesterday. Michel Barnier said an outright ban on naked short-selling is “an option that we are studying with seriousness”. He told a conference in France he is confident that EU governments can find a compromise on the bloc’s new regulatory framework, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 4, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES UK GOVERNMENT BOND MARKET STRONG, SAYS DMO The UK government bond market has been one of the best performing of the year because the country is safely outside the troubled eurozone and has its own currency, according to Robert Stheeman, chief executive of the Debt Management Office. He points out that gilts have [...]
UK private equity still spending July 4, 2010 UK private equity firms plan to invest billions of pounds in the UK, but are not prepared to pay above industry average, according to the latest Grant Thornton Private Equity Barometer. The findings, from a poll of more than 100 private equity executives, show more than 42 per cent expect to invest more than £50m [...]
Aim loses 15 members in June July 4, 2010 The junior market lost 15 members last month, with only Macau Property Opportunities Fund promoted to the official list. That is up from the eight that left in May, according to law firm June, Trowers & Hamlins and accountancy group UHY Hacker Young. A further five Aim listings were cancelled in the first two days [...]
Coalition says 40 per cent cuts unlikely July 4, 2010 THE government yesterday tried to soothe fears over the biggest spending cuts in a generation, after the chancellor asked departments to draw up plans to slash their budgets by a staggering 40 per cent. George Osborne has asked the cabinet to prepare a package of cuts that would be implemented if their departmental budget were [...]
Minister discusses strikes clampdown July 4, 2010 TRANSPORT Secretary Philip Hammond was reported last night to have held discussions with Mayor of London Boris Johnson about ways the coalition government may be able to avert a winter of discontent. The two men are said to have examined proposals drawn up by the employers’ organisation the CBI to declare a strike illegal unless [...]
