Takeovers kick off with Rangers bid – Editor’s Letter January 5, 2015 Football is a funny old game, and a funny old business too. Yesterday, just as one Glasgow Rangers director made the club a £500,000 emergency loan to keep it in business, the famous old institution became one of the first companies of this New Year to become subject to a City takeover bid. The [...]
Deputy chief of RBS leaves January 5, 2015 CHRIS Sullivan has left RBS, less than a year after he took the job of deputy chief executive. He had planned to leave in 2015, and left the bank on New Year’s Eve. Sullivan came under fire from MPs last year after he had to correct evidence given to the Treasury Select Committee about the [...]
Clarke slams housing tax January 5, 2015 FORMER Labour home secretary Charles Clarke has labelled Ed Miliband’s levy on houses over £2m an “absurd propostion”. Clarke said it would only be paid by a very few rich people. Labour’s new Scottish leader yesterday said they would use proceeds from the levy – gathered primarily from the south of England – to fund [...]
Londoners hit record number January 5, 2015 LONDON’s population is forecast to reach record levels this year according to figures from the Greater London Authority. The Greater London population is expected to surpass 8.669m which would be sufficient to take it over levels not seen since 1939 when the population peaked at 8.615m. London’s population declined in the post-war decades. Barney Stringer [...]
JP Morgan to pay settlement January 5, 2015 JP MORGAN Chase & Co has become the first bank to settle a US antitrust lawsuit in which investors accused 12 major banks of rigging prices in the $5 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market. The largest US bank will pay about $100m, a person familiar with the matter said. Lawyers for the bank and the investors [...]
Morgan Stanley share price drops as bank sacks wealth arm data thief January 5, 2015 A wealth management banker stole clients’ data and posted it online, US investment bank Morgan Stanley admitted yesterday. It sacked the worker responsible and called law enforcement authorities. Shares in the bank fell further than those in the rest of the sector on the announcement, as regulators are increasingly keen to make sure financial institutions are [...]
Walkie Talkie Sky Garden: Bookings roll in but rules have riled January 5, 2015 The lifts of 20 Fenchurch Street opened to the public yesterday, with roughly 80 excited guests heading up to be among the first to experience the building’s Sky Garden. Booking opened to visitors on 1 December and according to Rhubarb, the company running the Sky Garden’s attractions, it has been popular, with 500 bookings for [...]
CBI under fire from Business for Britain as competition comes to lobby groups January 5, 2015 The Confederation of British Industry is a champion of competition. It wants more competition in banking, for instance and pushed for robust powers for the new Competition and Markets Authority. But suddenly competition in the CBI’s own sector – business lobbying – has got tough. In a scene reminiscent of that seen in sectors like [...]
Rocky year ahead for flotations as market uncertainty reigns January 5, 2015 THE GENERAL Election in the UK and turmoil abroad could shake the equity capital markets in 2015, JP Morgan’s regional boss told City A.M. Vis Raghavan expects some flotations to take off strongly in any case, but predicts more marginal firms to either hold off floats or cut the price of their stock when volatility strikes. “You [...]
Housebuilding surge slows to weakest growth in 18 months January 5, 2015 Construction growth slowed again in December, an influential private sector survey showed yesterday, as the boom in house building cooled a touch. The sector is still growing rapidly – Markit’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) came in at 57.6, well above the 50-mark which shows growth, and firmly above the long-term trend rate of 54.5. But [...]
