City should not fear new regulations on bonuses August 16, 2009 No sooner had the Financial Services Authority (FSA) announced new proposals on how financial institutions should determine salaries and incentives last week, they were attacked for being too soft on bankers’ pay. Some critics even went so far as to call for a windfall tax on bonuses. However, now that we have seen several banks [...]
City broker KBC Peel Hunt defies slump August 16, 2009 KBC Peel Hunt (KBCPH), the mid-cap broker, yesterday declared a surge in first-half profits and reported it was snapping up market share in the downturn. The City firm said it has doubled its net revenues to £24m for the six months to 30 June, compared to £11.5m for the same period last year. In its [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 16, 2009 Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationThe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has appointed Joe Carrell, currently an official at its global health policy and advocacy group, to head its new London office. Carrell, who joined the foundation in 2001, will move over from Seattle in January 2010, to oversee the organisation’s first European outpost, which is [...]
Asking prices fall despite lack of stock August 16, 2009 AVERAGE asking prices slipped back in August despite a scarcity of fresh stock and record search activity, according to property website Rightmove. Rightmove figures showed a 2.2 per cent fall in new sellers’ asking prices as summer sellers price more realistically, putting the average property asking price at £222,762. The yearly decline remained at 3.1 [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK August 16, 2009 OUR BILL this week comes from four diners who sampled the Chino-Latino delights at St Martin’s Lane Hotel’s Asia de Cuba restaurant this week – though you wouldn’t envy them the rum-induced headache the next day. After warming up with Latino cocktails and starters – including fusion-themed tuna, calamari and duck dishes – they moved [...]
EMPLOYERS BEWARE AS CV FIBS ARE ON THE RISE August 16, 2009 READERS who have ever been tempted to “embellish” their CV will probably remember the story of disgraced hotel executive, Patrick Imbardelli, who lost everything he had worked for because of such an indiscretion. Imbardelli was forced to resign from his role as head of Asia Pacific at InterContinental Hotels in 2007, just weeks before he [...]
Keydata set to break bad news August 16, 2009 INVESTORS are preparing for bad news today from a creditors’ meeting at failed structured product firm Keydata, with the firm expected to say they will only get back “pennies in the pound” of their outlay. The 5,500 investors in Keydata’s Secure Income Bond products, which stopped making payouts after it emerged £103m that was supposed [...]
Shake-up talks at Network Rail August 16, 2009 RICK Haythornthwaite, the chairman of Network Rail, is holding meetings with the company’s members throughout September and October to discuss changes to the group’s corporate governance. Among the changes being discussed is a motion to slash the number of members from 106 to around 30, to make the company more manageable.Network Rail doesn’t have investors, [...]
Private sector shrivels under Labour, says Policy Exchange August 16, 2009 BRITAIN’S private sector will be smaller in 2010 than when Labour was returned to office in 1997, according to figures calculated by the Policy Exchange think tank. The economic output of the private sector will have slipped to around £706.1bn – below the inflation adjusted £708.9bn it amounted to in the first year of Tony [...]
M&A deals in Europe halve August 16, 2009 EUROPEAN mergers and acquisitions have plummeted by 51 per cent so far this year compared with 2008, amid the ongoing liquidity drought and fears about the economy recovery. In 2009 to date, Europe has seen a some $356.6bn (£215.6bn) worth of deal activity. Excluding government bailouts in struggling companies, this figure falls to just $239.1bn [...]
