There is value to be found in private equity May 19, 2010 AFTER two years in the investment wilderness listed private equity companies have emerged fresher, leaner, less debt-ridden and ripe to outperform the overall stock market, according to some analysts. Traditionally private equity houses tend to be a good play on a cyclical economic recovery. Their share prices should rise when their portfolio companies start to [...]
The heat is on for the steel price this year May 19, 2010 THE price of industrial metals has been hit during the recent bout of market turbulence. But against this backdrop pressures have been building that could drive the price of steel higher again. The industrial metal, widely used for the production of infrastructure, is being bolstered by several factors. The first is supply and demand. Supply [...]
THE TIPSTER May 19, 2010 THE airline that once billed itself as the world’s favourite is set to report fourth quarter results on Friday, but it has hardly been an upbeat few months for British Airways. Although these profit figures will not include the disruption caused by the volcano in Iceland, the carrier has been mired in an industrial dispute [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS May 19, 2010 COOKING UP A WINNER AT ISHARES The ETF provider iShares launched a new educational campaign this week in novel fashion. If you were around the City earlier this week then you may have seen two chefs, former contenders on MasterChef no less, cooking up a storm to promote the benefits of ETFs. The chefs used [...]
Constrained times ahead for banks as regulators piece together Basel III May 19, 2010 SINCE the banking crisis occurred, every major regulatory authority, central bank and government has been developing ideas for improving bank regulations, with some already imposed. Meanwhile, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which produced the original 1988 Basel Accord regulating capital requirements for banks and its subsequent revision, Basel II, ploughs on with a new [...]
Wielding power with persuasion is the strongest way to lead May 19, 2010 IF YOU think about it, persuasion and influence can be just the opposite of power. If you are loaded with power, why bother to persuade? Why not just command and have done with it? For some managers, that’s a question that needs answering. Right now there is optimism about the outcome of the recent General [...]
Picnic of champions May 19, 2010 AT bloomin’ last. It may have taken forever, but there’s finally warmth in the air and the weekend is expected to be lovely. The sunshine will have lots of us trotting off to the nearest park clutching blankets and picnic baskets, but we shouldn’t waste the occasion on the kind of basic fodder one can [...]
Borough Market gets a taste of Caribbean cacao May 19, 2010 THINK of premium, top-end chocolate and you probably think of exquisite truffles or smooth, silky bars in luxurious packaging, creations of meticulous artisan craftsmanship with the words “Swiss” or “Belgian” included somewhere. You wouldn’t think of inelegant, lumpy, rough-hewn shards of the stuff sold in no less elegant paper and plastic bags with a sticker [...]
Another triumph from the master of literary darkness May 19, 2010 THE SUNSET LIMITED BY CORMAC MCCARTHY Picador, £9.99 **** THE iconic American author of the Pulitzer winning The Road (2006) and No Country For Old Men (2005) has a fixation with the grim. Men (in general) love to read his work, see the film adaptations, perhaps because it all toys with apocalypse in various ways [...]
VEXED IN THE CITY May 19, 2010 I’m fed up with my office pal taking out his temper on me DEAR VEXED: There’s a guy at work in the same division as me. We’re on the same level as each other and joined the company at the same time. We get on brilliantly most of the time; laughing and joking, he even [...]
