O’Leary’s charm offensive fails to impress Chinese hackers April 29, 2015 RYANAIR chairman Michael O’Leary’s charm offensive designed to win over customers hasn’t seemed to reach China. The no frills airline boss, who recently spoke out about the need to improve customer service to prevent “unnecessarily pissing people off,” confirmed yesterday that hackers stole almost £3.25m from its accounts, using an electronic transfer via a Chinese [...]
Standard Life stands tall amid pension reform April 29, 2015 STANDARD Life’s assets under administration rose by five per cent to £311.9bn in the first quarter, as the savings and assets manager flexed its muscle in the face of new UK laws allowing savers to cash in their pension annuities. Third party net inflows of £3.7bn – 73 per cent of which came from outside [...]
UK house prices climb to new heights in April due to “surplus in demand which is outpacing supply” April 29, 2015 House prices climbed higher in April, new figures from a major mortgage lender reveal. Annual house price growth edged up to 5.2 per cent in April from March’s 5.1 per cent. The average UK house price is now a £193,048 – the highest on record. Housing analysts blame a lack of supply for [...]
Countrywide blames General Election uncertainty for first quarter slowdown April 29, 2015 Britain’s biggest estate agency Countrywide warned that market transactions would be “significantly below” last year’s levels, because of uncertainty over the outcome of the election causing prospective buyers to put their plans on hold. The company, which owns estate agencies including Hamptons, Blundells and John D Wood, said total income dropped by two per cent [...]
Quintain and Keystone team up to build 362 Wembley homes April 29, 2015 QUINTAIN said yesterday that it has joined forces with Swiss private equity group Keystone to build a further 362 homes at Wembley Park, including 120 for the private rental market. The 260,000 square feet residential development in north west London is Quintain’s second joint venture with Keystone after working on a 475-home development together last [...]
Conservative areas top house price growth April 29, 2015 HOMEOWNERS living in Conservative constituencies have been the biggest beneficiaries of the UK’s house price boom. Figures released today by online estate agents housesimple.com show that house prices in Tory strongholds have gained 17.1 per cent in the last five years. The rate of price growth is almost three times that of constituencies with the [...]
City Moves for 30 April 2015 | Who’s switching jobs April 29, 2015 ADS Securities London The brokerage has appointed Marco Baggioli as chief operating officer. He was previously global head of FX prime brokerage at BNP Paribas. Baggioli has over 23 years’ experience in the sector, and has also held roles at Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, and MonteTitoli. Michelmores The law firm has appointed Patrick [...]
Spirit Pub raises a glass to fizzing rise in profits as Greene King merger looms April 29, 2015 Spirit Pub Company toasted a strong rise in earnings yesterday after it reported a 12 per cent gain in half year profits. The pubs group, which has 1,211 boozers concentrated in London and the south east, added £3m of pre-tax profits to take the haul for the six months ending 7 March to £25m. Strong [...]
Romanian superfund Fondul Proprietatea lists shares in London April 29, 2015 Fondul Proprietatea, one of Europe’s biggest trusts, yesterday launched a secondary listing in London in a move designed to boost the profile of Romania’s stock market. The fund, which has $3.1bn (£2.01bn) of assets, will list global depositary receipts (GDRs) on the specialist fund market of the London stock exchange. Emerging market guru Mark [...]
Petropavlovsk wins over analysts with refinancing results April 29, 2015 Gold miner Petropavlovsk narrowed its losses to $348m (£226m) in 2014, compared to a $713m loss in 2013, and several analysts yesterday upgraded their ratings on the company. Petropavlovsk chairman Peter Hambro told City A.M. that 2014 was “a year in which we rebuilt the platform and the year in which we put behind us [...]
