Lloyd’s posts £3.2bn profit March 26, 2014 LLOYD’S of London has announced profits of £3.2bn for 2013, after a quiet year for insured catastrophes. The specialist insurance market posted strong results with profits up 14 per cent compared to 2012. The results are the first since Lloyd’s appointed Inga Beale to the role of chief executive, the first woman to hold the [...]
Fitch sours on 18 euro banks March 26, 2014 CREDIT ratings agency Fitch shifted 18 small government-backed banks across the Eurozone from a stable to negative outlook yesterday, Fitch said that the alteration came from changing assumptions about the level of support from national governments. The credit ratings agency says that start of the euro area’s banking union will reduce national supervision of banks, [...]
Key BT TV chief leaves in media division revamp March 26, 2014 BT’S TELEVISION chief, Marc Watson, an instrumental player in BT’s multi-million pound assault on the Pay-TV market, will leave the firm as part of a revamp of the telecoms giant’s media divisions. Watson took over BT TV in 2007 and played a central role in the negotiations to secure key sporting rights – including the [...]
Just-Eat cooks up a tasty price range for its London share issue March 26, 2014 JUST-EAT, the online takeaway food group, is chasing a valuation of between £1.2bn and £1.47bn, it emerged yesterday. The group, whose management team begins a road-show today mainly in New York and London, decided to plump for a higher than expected valuation after testing out demand with institutional investors over the past few days. At [...]
First to list on new segment March 26, 2014 IT WAS with a sweet symmetry that Just-Eat chose yesterday to become the first group to list on London’s High Growth Segment, the listing vehicle which many hope will persuade technology groups to choose the capital rather than New York for their share listing. King’s shares, one of the great losses to the London market, [...]
Inside Track: Cenkos is driving an AA float, but the handbrake is still on March 26, 2014 YOU KNOW things are getting toppy when Cenkos is hawking accelerated IPOs around the City,” a fund manager told me over lunch last week. While he said it half in jest, he had a point. The investment bank whose rainmakers pioneered the technique during their time at Collins Stewart are back in their old routine. [...]
Stock market’s recovery gives a boost to brokers March 26, 2014 TWO LONDON stockbroking firms yesterday said the resurging equity markets have helped boost their businesses in the past year. Cenkos Securities said its work on more fundraising deals lifted annual revenues 19 per cent to £51.4m, while pre-tax profits rose 53 per cent to £10.7m. “We have made a very encouraging start to the new [...]
Santander promises better service March 26, 2014 Santander yesterday apologised for mistreating investment customers and said its service has been turned around since 2012. The Financial Conduct Authority fined the bank £12.4m after a mystery shopping exercise found a quarter of customers were given bad advice. The bank has since shut down its investment advice arm. “We regret elements of Santander UK’s historic [...]
Future boss out after profit warning March 26, 2014 Future, the international media group behind Total Film and T3, yesterday announced that chief executive Mark Wood will step down with immediate effect just weeks after the firm warned that full year earnings would be below market forecasts. Future said that finance chief Zillah Byng-Maddick will take over as chief executive following Wood’s departure. Future [...]
Pets At Home hires ex-Britvic boss March 26, 2014 Pets At Home, which listed on the London Stock Exchange on 17 March, yesterday appointed former Britvic chief executive Paul Moody as non-executive director at the firm. Chairman Tony DeNunzio said Moody’s “strong track record in consumer-facing industries” would help it to “expand and grow” the firm. Moody has been the boss of Food Freshness [...]
