Duke Street takes stake in legal market February 6, 2012 PRIVATE EQUITY firm Duke Street has become the first investment house to take a stake in the UK’s legal sector, buying a majority stake in Parabis Group – the parent company of two insurance litigation firms. Duke Street’s investment, which means it owns just over 50 per cent of Parabis, values the company at £150m-£200m. [...]
Pinsent Masons and McGrigors confirm merger February 6, 2012 CITY law firm Pinsent Masons yesterday confirmed it will merge with Edinburgh-based McGrigors, in a legal tie-up to create a company with a turnover of more than £300m. The combined firm will employ over 2,500 people in total including more than 1,500 lawyers, with around 500 based at Pinsents current headquarters in the legal heart [...]
LAUREUS WORLD SPORTS AWARDS FIRE THE GUN ON LONDON’S OLYMPIC YEAR February 6, 2012 MOST SPORTSMEN keep their trophies in cabinets or on the mantelpiece. Golfer Darren Clarke uses his Open Championship silverware to pour wine. “When I was serving the wine at Christmas from The Claret Jug; I thought ‘this is the life’,” said Clarke on the moment winning the Open on the twentieth attempt aged 42 finally [...]
THE LAUREUS WORLD SPORTS AWARDS WINNERS February 6, 2012 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Novak Djokovic (right) Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Vivian Cheruiyot Laureus World Team of the Year FC Barcelona Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Rory McIlroy (right) Laureus World Comeback of the Year Darren Clarke The Laureus Sport for Good Award Raí Souza Vieira de Oliveira Laureus World [...]
Tesco delays launch of current account February 6, 2012 TESCO Bank will not launch its current account in 2012 as expected, hitting the government’s attempts to shake up the notoriously uncompetitive retail banking market. The supermarket’s financial services arm had planned to unveil its flagship product this year but is now set to launch at the end of 2013. The delay will allow the [...]
Westerman goes east in Goldman’s reshuffle February 6, 2012 FOLLOWING in the footsteps of Richard Campbell-Breeden (Asia) and Chris Barter (Moscow), Goldman Sachs is moving Matthew Westerman to Hong Kong to become co-head of its investment banking division for Asia outside of Japan. Westerman, whose recent deals include the Prada IPO and the HSBC rights issue, was recently global head of equity capital markets [...]
Smith & Nephew settles bribe case February 6, 2012 Medical device maker Smith & Nephew yesterday agreed to pay $22.2m (£14m) to settle allegations that its subsidiaries paid bribes to win business in Greece. The US Justice Department and SEC said the firm charged a Greek distributor full price for its products, then paid to shell companies the amount of discounts usually given. The [...]
News Int takes to the airwaves February 6, 2012 The Sun and other News International titles have partnered up with Global Radio brands in a wide-ranging advertising deals. The papers will sponsor such programmes as the Capital Breakfast show, LBC 97.3 and Classic FM.
EasyJet passenger numbers take a hit February 6, 2012 EASYJET has seen its first decline in passenger numbers since sales were hit by the eruption of the volcanic ash cloud in April 2010. The budget airline said the numbers of passengers fell by 0.4 per cent to 3.73m in January compared to 3.74m in the same month last year after economic headwinds took their [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK LONDON HAS LEARNED TO COPE WITH SNOW? February 6, 2012 GRAHAM WICKENS | LLOYD’S OF LONDON “It is too early to say. The snow has pretty much gone and luckily it was over the weekend so traveling into work wasn’t affected.” GURDEV LANDA | CITITEC “I think London has coped better, but to be honest there hasn’t been very much. The trains have all been [...]