London is booming. We must allow it to fulfil its true potential May 15, 2014 WE all know that London emerged from the crisis remarkably unscathed. But few realise just how well our great city has performed over the past 15 years, and how we have grown faster than almost all comparable metropolises since the recession. In 1997, London boasted 1.59m employee jobs in office-based sectors. Today, the number is [...]
Astrazeneca told to engage with Pfizer boss Read May 15, 2014 ASTRAZENECA shareholders yesterday urged the firm’s management to start engaging with Pfizer bosses over a potential takeover deal. Pfizer chief Ian Read, who was last night plotting his next move in his bid to buy the UK drug giant, met with City institutions yesterday to lay out his plans for a combined company. One institutional [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 16 May 2014 May 15, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Fox to create TV production group Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox has reached a preliminary deal with Apollo Global Management to create one of the world’s largest television production businesses. The agreement would see Fox’s Shine Group enter into a joint venture with two TV production businesses controlled by Apollo – Core Media, [...]
Election debate battle hots up May 15, 2014 The Guardian and The Telegraph have teamed up with online video site YouTube in a bid to stage the 2015 general election debates. The debates, which five years ago were broadcast by major TV channels, are likely to feature the main party leaders: David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband. The trio argues that by [...]
Buffett dials up Verizon shares May 15, 2014 Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought a new stake of 11m shares in Verizon Communications in the first quarter and added to its holding in Wal-Mart Stores, according to a regulatory filing last night. Berkshire, an ice cream to insurance conglomerate where Buffett is chairman and chief executive, increased its holding of Wal-Mart by 17.3 per [...]
Barclays in £600m bond swap May 15, 2014 Barclays is issuing at least another £600m of convertible bonds, or cocos, to boost its capital position. The bank is exchanging the new instruments for old bonds issued before the EU’s latest rules on capital buffers, CRD4, came into force. The bank has already issued £2bn of the instruments. Cocos boost a bank’s capital position [...]
RP Martin fined £1.5m in UK and US over Libor May 15, 2014 BROKERAGE RP Martin was yesterday hit with fines from both sides of the Atlantic after regulators found some staff had colluded with bank traders to try to fiddle Libor. It was fined £630,000 in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority. The charge would have come in at £3.6m, but the FCA feared the firm [...]
Suitmaker Bagir crashes after M&S slashes orders from firm May 15, 2014 ONE OF the country’s biggest listed menswear suppliers crashed nearly 70 per cent in trading yesterday after its largest customer, Marks & Spencer, signalled a reduction in orders for the firm. Bagir Group, which floated last month, was forced to issue a profit warning due to the reduction in M&S orders, sending shares down 68 [...]
Card Factory greeted with share sell off May 15, 2014 DISCOUNT greeting card shop Card Factory fell as much as nine per cent in trading yesterday, as its shares started trading on the London Stock Exchange. The business, which is being sold by private equity house Charterhouse, priced its shares at 225p to raise £90m for the company but they tumbled to as low as [...]
Carphone and Dixons dial up £3.8bn merger May 15, 2014 DIXONS Retail and Carphone Warehouse shares slid into the red yesterday after the high street giants’ plans for a £3.8bn merger was given a mixed reception. The new group, which will be named Dixons Carphone, aims to exploit the ever-growing presence of smartphones in people’s lives and the so-called internet of things – where household [...]
