Winton Capital suffers rare slip as fund fees fall October 3, 2013 WINTON Capital Management, one of Europe’s biggest hedge funds, saw turnover and operating profits slide last year after it fell short on some of its performance targets. The company, established by hedge fund pioneer David Harding in 1997, posted £192.9m in turnover for the year ending 2012, down from £350.6m in 2011. This led to [...]
Record issue of Euro junk bonds in September amid debt renewal October 3, 2013 EUROPEAN junk bond issuances hit a record high last month thanks to an increase in the number of companies looking to refinance debt. September saw €10.5bn of high yield bonds supplied to the market, driven by corporate refinancings, which are responsible for about 60 per cent of issuances so far this year. The third quarter [...]
Citigroup fined $30m in US civil case over confidential research October 3, 2013 CITIGROUP will pay a $30m (£18.6m) fine after one of its analysts improperly sent confidential research on an Apple supplier to big clients including Steven A Cohen’s hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, a securities regulator said yesterday. At $30m, the Massachusetts fine is both one of the biggest state securities regulators have ever collected and [...]
Crunch stops getting worse as savers’ interest rates bottom out October 3, 2013 INTEREST rates on bank deposits look to have hit rock bottom and can no longer fall further, according to a survey published yesterday by the Bank of England. Rates have plunged over the past year, in part because of the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) through which the Bank of England has offered lenders cheap funding [...]
Skyscanner lifts off with £800m US valuation October 3, 2013 SKYSCANNER announced yesterday that it has received investment from US venture capital firm Sequoia Capital that values the flight search company at $800m (£459m). “Sequoia Capital’s investment in Skyscanner brings us a depth of experience drawn from a pantheon of tech brands. We intend to offer our users more of the great technology and functionality [...]
Finance chief Halford plans Vodafone exit October 3, 2013 VODAFONE finance chief Andy Halford announced yesterday that he will leave the company in March 2014 after Vodafone’s £84bn sale of its stake in Verizon Wireless closes. Halford, a 14-year Vodafone veteran, said: “Next year will be the right time for me to move on and seek the next challenge in my career, It has [...]
New regulations to close 15,000 payday lenders October 3, 2013 PAYDAY lenders must do more to check borrowers can afford loans, stop rolling over debts so many times, and will face limits on how they access customers’ bank accounts, the City watchdog said yesterday. The proposed rules are expected to lead 25 to 30 per cent of the estimated 50,000 firms in the sector – [...]
Britain backs global accounting rules despite investor concerns October 3, 2013 BRITAIN still believes a specific reference to “prudence” would improve international accounting standards, but reasserted yesterday the rules as they stand are legally binding, hoping to end any uncertainty over the matter. Rules on how companies are audited, drawn up by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), are mandatory in Britain and elsewhere in the [...]
Inside Track: King’s New York flotation will be a Saga worth watching October 3, 2013 EXCITEMENT about the flotation of one of the UK’s hottest internet companies, King, is increasing by the day. Sadly the listing will not be in London, which robs the City of a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate that our public markets are fully recovered, even for high-flying growth companies. That aside, the growth of King, the [...]
Q and A: What is happening to payday loans? October 3, 2013 Q Why are changes being made? A Payday lenders are under fire for lending at interest rates that can reach as high as an annualised 5,000 per cent. Now the City has a new conduct regulator, it is taking charge of the sector to look after consumers. Q What changes are on the way? A [...]
