10 seats to watch after the vote: From marginals to bellwethers, these are the contests to follow as the General Election results roll in May 6, 2015 KINGSTON AND SURBITON LIBERAL DEMOCRAT (2010) Energy minister Ed Davey is defending his seat in this southwest London constituency. In 2010, Davey took half of the votes, with the Conservatives coming in second with 37 per cent. This time around, the Tories are targeting the seat, hoping to win with support from voters opposing [...]
Tidjane Thiam’s last Prudential results put spotlight on Asia while UK business lags May 6, 2015 Outgoing Prudential boss Tidjane Thiam yesterday said the company was no longer seeking to grow in the US and UK, and would instead focus on expanding in the Asian market. Thiam delivered his last set of results as the head of the insurance group, which detailed the firm’s 22nd consecutive quarter of growth. Sales across [...]
Legal & General faces down pension changes in record first quarter May 6, 2015 Insurance and investment group Legal & General (L&G) delivered a record performance in the first quarter of 2015, with cash generation up to £330m, an 11 per cent increase on the same period last year. General insurance gross written premium fell by four per cent to £81m, which the company attributed to “disciplined pricing”, noting [...]
Sage pushes on with new plan May 6, 2015 SHARES in software provider Sage went up by 8.36 per cent yesterday after the firm reported a 6.5 per cent increase in revenue during the six months to 31 March, up to £699m from £657m in the same period of last year. Profit before tax also grew, up 4.9 per cent from £165m to £173m, [...]
Glastonbury’s oasis of calm May 6, 2015 LESS than seven weeks to go before Glastonbury, with Foo Fighters, Kanye West, and The Who confirmed among the headliners. Come rain or…well probably rain, The Capitalist is determined not to repeat past mistakes. Aside from the pharmaceutical-fuelled inappropriate dancing and random 24-hour relationships, there was the tent that never quite survived, the mud-logged trek [...]
City pay revolts make a return: Investors are once again feeling uneasy about executive rewards May 6, 2015 Three years on from the so-called “shareholder spring” and listed hedge fund Man Group is again facing murmurs of discontent from investors over pay. The FTSE 250 group, led by chief executive Manny Roman, has put forward a plan to boost executive pay rewards and make it “competitive in the marketplace”. However influential advisory firm [...]
Standard Chartered warns compliance costs are mounting as it stays in the UK May 6, 2015 An increasing number of compliance staff are paid seven-figure salaries at Standard Chartered, the bank’s bosses told shareholders yesterday, as it battles to make sure it does not pay more mega-fines. The UK-based emerging markets specialist has been hit with fines for breaking US sanctions, and is increasingly beefing up its anti-money laundering teams. Chairman [...]
IMF boss Christine Lagarde: The world needs more women with top jobs in finance May 6, 2015 The bad culture in banking is still not fixed, and more women at the top of the industry could help, International Monetary Fund boss Christine Lagarde said yesterday. “Several studies have shown that female leadership is more inclusive,” she told an audience in Washington DC. “You may be familiar with a question I have posed in the [...]
Angela Ahrendts: The Apple of their eye May 6, 2015 Angela Ahrendts was paid an $83m golden hello when she joined Apple last year. The highly-successful boss left behind a career at Burberry, with her role filled by Chris Bailey. But Bailey soon ran into trouble as his modest-by-comparison pay sparked a shareholder revolt. While Burberry expressed its disappointment at the time, a source close [...]
Sainsbury’s dividend hit as profits plunge: Supermarket joins “horror show of income slashers” May 6, 2015 Sainsbury’s became the latest supermarket to take the knife to its final dividend yesterday, joining banks and oil companies in what analysts called a “horror show of income slashers”. Sainsbury’s said it will pay a full-year dividend of 13.2p per share, down 23.7 per cent on last year, after changing its policy in November [...]
