Commerzbank revamp near end July 26, 2009 The restructuring of Commerzbank’s investment banking operations is progressing ahead of schedule, the head of the firm’s corporate finance division Roman Schmitt said yesterday. Schmitt said the reorganisation of the German bank’s London arm could be completed by September, beating an earlier target of the end of 2010.
New vehicle to buy properties July 26, 2009 Former Land Securities board director, Mike Hussey, and Neil Jones, the former head of the European unit of Grosevenor are in early talks to launch a £500m investment vehicle to sna up distressed property in the UK and Europe. Hussey stepped down from Land Secs last month when it axed plans for a demerger that [...]
Dire GDP data threatens UK growth hopes July 26, 2009 DESPITE a worse-than-expected contraction in second quarter GDP, the government is still claiming that the economy is still likely to return to growth later this year. But some analysts questioned whether we would indeed see positive GDP growth in the second half of 2009, given the shocking data released on Friday by the Office for [...]
UKFI close to naming chair July 26, 2009 UK FINANCIAL Investments (UKFI) – the body which manages the government’s stakes in Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland – will have a new chairman within weeks, sources said yesterday. The Treasury is leading the search for a candidate to chair UKFI and is believed to have placed Sir David Cooksey, a former [...]
UBS hires Magnus to run investment banking units July 26, 2009 SWISS bank UBS has hired Bank of America-Merrill Lynch’s Keith Magnus to head up its investment banking operations in Singapore and Malaysia. Magnus, who previously ran BoA-Merrill Lynch’s Singaporean and Malaysian investment banking activities, was at the heart of some of the bank’s biggest deals in the past year. Magnus will report to Matthew Hanning [...]
Brief respite in UK travel insolvencies July 26, 2009 THERE was a marked drop in the number of UK travel companies falling into insolvency in the second quarter of the year, new figures have revealed, after the sector enjoyed a boost from the warm weather and the weakness of sterling. Business advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said that just 12 UK travel firms succumbed to the [...]
WILL WE SEE A RETURN TO GROWTH LATER THIS YEAR? July 26, 2009 MICHAEL SAUNDERS CITIGROUP We expect that the second quarter will indeed turn out to be the last quarter of recession – ie, falling GDP. But we expect a slow recovery, held back by high private debts and poor credit availability. We expect it will take about 20 quarters before GDP regains its pre-recession peak.VICKY REDWOOD [...]
Music maestros are on song about credit crunch July 26, 2009 Few market watchers saw this crisis coming and lots of guests we speak to at CNBC ask why we should take advice from so–called experts who didn’t predict the downturn. So why not turn elsewhere? Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley published a report on the media industry by a 15 year-old work experience boy. In [...]
Meet the deal-maker extraordinaire who hopes the crisis will end in 2010 July 26, 2009 It is hard to escape the feeling that Slaughter and May’s Nigel Boardman is ever so slightly bored. Given that he is London’s top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyer, and that we are still in the midst of a bitter recession which has led to a dramatic reduction in deal-making, this is not exactly surprising. [...]
Results season begins as BT and National Express report July 26, 2009 THE company reporting season gets into full swing this week, with a slew of companies issuing numbers including BP, Shell and BT to name just three FTSE 100 giants. National Express, the rail and coach operator that recently became a takeover target after losing its franchise for the East Coast main line, reports on Thursday [...]
