Ashtead prices £245m debt facility December 12, 2013 Ashtead, the international equipment rental company which will leap into the FTSE 100 on 20 December, yesterday said it has priced $400m (£245m) 6.5 per cent notes due 2022. The offering is an expansion of a $300m debt facility announced on Wednesday. “Good credit markets have enabled us to fix the cost of a further [...]
London Mining lowers 2013 forecasts December 12, 2013 Aim-listed London Mining yesterday said it has lowered its full-year production and sales guidance, due to slower-than-expected completion of a plant upgrade and the effects of the wet season. “While this is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things it is a small negative mark against management, which had previously extolled its [...]
City Moves for 13 December 2013 | Who’s switching jobs December 12, 2013 Quintant Partners The insurance and technology firm has hired Guy Shepherd as director for technology and solution design. He has over 20 years’ experience developing insurance technology solutions. Shepherd was formerly at PwC, where he was head of its insurance modelling practice. TSB The bank has announced the appointment of Susan Crichton as general counsel. [...]
Best of the Brokers for 13 December 2013 December 12, 2013 GENEL ENERGY Canaccord Genuity analysts have raised their rating on the oil exploration company from “hold” to “buy” with a price target of 1,240p after the analysts said diplomacy between exporting countries in the Kurdistan region of Iraq had given renewed impetus to pipeline oil exports. BRITVIC Broker Numis has a “hold” rating on the [...]
London Report: FTSE faces worst week on week run since 2008 December 12, 2013 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 fell again yesterday, heading for its longest run of weekly drops since 2008, led by a sell-off in engineering and retail sectors and rattled by concerns about an imminent scaling back of US monetary stimulus. Sports Direct led falling stocks, down 12.6 per cent in its biggest one-day drop for over two [...]
New York Report: Taper paranoia sees US stocks losing ground December 12, 2013 US STOCKS fell yesterday as retail sales rose solidly in November, adding to signs the economy is strong enough for the Federal Reserve to begin reducing the pace of monetary stimulus. Profit-taking also played a part in the market’s decline, with investors selling some stocks to lock in gains from this year’s rally. The S&P [...]
Few predicted London’s reinvention but we can build for its future growth December 12, 2013 LONDON is changing. But then again, it always is. The theme of my new book Reinventing London is that change is the lifeblood of a great city. Over the past 30 years, the capital has replaced around 1m jobs in manufacturing, largely around the edge of the city and along radial routes, with over 1m [...]
The Long View: Three reads for Christmas: Glamour, Cicero’s web and high-tech fiction December 12, 2013 I WROTE at the end of November that the rise of the selfie marked the death of the audience and the rise of an age committed to universal self-expression and performance. This week, even world leaders have been joining in. When David Cameron and Barack Obama were caught taking silly pictures of themselves at Nelson [...]
EU wargame: Reform can happen but Brexit could still be amicable December 12, 2013 IN BUSINESS, as in diplomacy, “war games” or simulations are a useful tool for mapping out tricky negotiations or complex geopolitical issues. The technique is often used by the CIA to play out security scenarios. But it was also reportedly used by Germany to work out what a Grexit might mean for the Eurozone economy [...]
Letters to the Editor – 13/12 – Drug legalisation, Airport debate, Best of Twitter December 12, 2013 Drug legalisation [Re: Failing UK drugs policy should take a leaf from Uruguay and Portugal, yesterday] Those that support the continuation of the failed policy of drugs prohibition are supporting the continuation of criminal control, as well as the shameful waste of vast sums of taxpayer money in trying (and failing) to prevent distribution and [...]
