Call to clean up insolvency fees December 21, 2011 Insolvency professionals will have to answer to a new independent watchdog if the industry does not tackle excessive fees and overhaul its own regulations, the government said yesterday. Insolvency minister Ed Davey said charges need to be more transparent, possibly through a new law if the sector fails to clean up its own act. A [...]
Hardy again in sights of rival Beazley December 21, 2011 BRITISH insurer Beazley is hatching a new plan to take over Hardy Underwriting, a year after abandoning an initial move on its smaller rival. The potential bid would comes at a time of consolidation in the Lloyd’s of London insurance market. Beazley revealed it was interested in talks following Hardy’s announcement this month of a [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU FEEL MORE INCLINED BE CHARITABLE AT CHRISTMAS? December 21, 2011 SHAKTI ANAND TATA CONSULTANCY “Yes, I carry out a lot of charitable actions at Christmas time. I like to make a visible difference as it gives me satisfaction over the holiday period.” ALAN CULLEN LAING O’ROURKE “Definitely, it is the Christian thing to do. It is a time for being with the family, which makes [...]
PETRA CELEBRATES MAIN MARKET MOVE WITH RECORD SALE December 21, 2011 PETRA Diamonds has achieved the highest price per carat of any rough diamond it has ever sold. The 4.8 carat blue stone was sold for $1.45m (£920,000) just hours before Petra’s shares started trading on London’s main market yesterday, graduating from Aim. Chief executive Johan Dippenaar is pictured at the Cullinan mine, where the stone [...]
ED SAATCHI SCALES UP TO SOCIAL MEDIA IPO December 21, 2011 IMAGINE logging on to Facebook and it already knows who your friends are, says Edward Saatchi, the red-headed son of the advertising legend Maurice Saatchi. This is the idea behind the “social, data-driven” networking site that is NationalField, the business world’s answer to Facebook that launched in spring 2008 as a way of connecting staff [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 21, 2011 CARNIVAL Deutsche Bank rates the cruise company as a “buy” with a target price of 2,650p after fourth quarter results that showed earnings per share (EPS) in line with the broker’s expectations of 28 cents. Deutsche points out that while it expected no extra stock to have been purchased following a significant buyback in the [...]
Markets hold up yet tech sector hit by slide December 21, 2011 TECHNOLOGY shares slumped yesterday and pushed the Nasdaq down one per cent after Oracle reported results that cast doubts on the sector’s health, even as broader markets closed mostly flat in a thinly traded day. Outside the Nasdaq, the market recovered from early losses as some recent fears over Europe faded. Traders tried to build [...]
FTSE seesaws lower on banks and retailers December 21, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index fell back after a volatile session yesterday, swinging back from early strong gains in low volumes, with banks seeing gains eroded, although Lloyds was boosted by a broker double upgrade. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 29.86 points, or 0.6 per cent at 5,389.74, reversing a chunk of [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 21, 2011 Cinven The private equity firm has made several appointments at Guardian Financial Services, the UK consolidator of closed life assurance funds acquired by Cinven in August. Jonathan Yates (pictured), formerly group finance director of Phoenix Group, joins as chief executive; Paul Dixon joins from Phoenix as chief investment officer; and Simon Davis, who previously ran [...]
AstraZeneca bets on Asia research December 21, 2011 AstraZeneca is placing new bets on drug research by signing deals with two Asian companies, just a day after suffering a double setback for two of its most important pipeline assets. Britain’s second biggest drugmaker said yesterday it had struck a global deal to co-develop a novel cancer treatment from FTSE-listed Hutchison China MediTech and [...]
