River and Mercantile joins stampede to tap City investors May 22, 2014 PENSIONS advisory outfit River and Mercantile yesterday unveiled plans to raise £12m on the London stock market to build a warchest for future acquisitions. The business, which was formed from a merger between consultancy P-Solve and fund manager River and Mercantile Asset Management, said it planned tap to into the “pensions revolution” and the growing [...]
Wonga chaos as boss quits after just six months May 22, 2014 PAYDAY lender Wonga is on its third chief executive in just six months after Niall Wass yesterday announced his departure . He took the job only in November, after joining the digital loans company in January 2013 as chief operating officer. Wass took over from founder Errol Damelin, who stepped back to become chairman late last [...]
Inside Track: How the titans of the PR world fought pharma bid battle May 22, 2014 Pfizer’s £69bn failed bid for Astrazeneca has drawn several parallels with Kraft’s successful purchase of Cadbury, one of them being that it pitted the same two financial companies, heavyweights Brunswick and RLM Finsbury, against one another. If one could judge a campaign by the victor in a takeover battle, then ostensibly Brunswick, which was advising [...]
Royal Mail posts a warning over delivery rivalry May 22, 2014 ROYAL Mail’s shares dragged the FTSE 100 down yesterday as the recently privatised postal firm’s shares tumbled 9.7 per cent, following a warning of rising competition in parcel deliveries. The warning dulled an otherwise strong set of results from Royal Mail, which reported a 12 per cent rise in full-year profit to £363m during the [...]
Analyst Views: What did you make of Royal Mail’s financial results? May 22, 2014 GERT ZONNEVELD | PANMURE GORDONThe competitive market on the parcels side is more intense and the company is taking steps to remain leader in this growing market. On the letters front, direct delivery is the main concern. Without regulatory action, Royal Mail estimates that direct delivery could hit revenues by £200m by 2017/18. RICHARD HUNTER [...]
Bwin.party board in deal with SpringOwl May 22, 2014 ONLINE gaming company Bwin.party has agreed to let an activist US investment group to take a seat on its board in a compromise deal following weeks of verbal sparring. The agreement headed off an expected clash at the company’s annual meeting in Gibraltar, where investor SpringOwl, which has a five per cent stake in Bwin.party, [...]
Thai army takes control in coup May 22, 2014 THAILAND’S army chief announced a military coup d’etat yesterday, following the introduction of martial law on Wednesday, the 12th armed overthrow of the country’s government since the 1930s. Thailand’s army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, announced the upheaval on the country’s television, along with the heads of the nation’s other armed services. The country has now [...]
Blow to Cameron as net migration jumps to 212,000 May 22, 2014 NET MIGRATION to the UK rose last year to 212,000 compared to 177,000 the previous year, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show. The figures will come as a blow to David Cameron, who has pledged to reduce net migration to tens of thousands before next year’s general election. Despite the rise [...]
Investment firms hit by a raft of fresh red tape on transparency May 22, 2014 INVESTMENT firms were yesterday faced with 300 pages of detailed regulation on transparency and investor protection, which lawyers warned would be tough to digest. The proposals cover the implementation of the EU’s markets in financial instruments directive (MiFID2), due to be introduced in 2016. High frequency trading is one area that will be affected, with [...]
French economy dips even as Europe grows May 22, 2014 THE FRENCH economy slipped back into contraction after two months of growth, according to a major business survey released yesterday morning, despite the Eurozone heading towards its best quarter in three years. According to Markit’s flash purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the currency bloc in May, growth this quarter so far is at the strongest [...]
