Thiam placates investors but pay row may be next March 9, 2011 TIDJANE Thiam returned like Lazarus from beyond the reputational grave yesterday with the kind of convincingly superb results needed to regain investors’ faith. Thiam, promoted from finance director to chief executive of the Pru in 2009, has felt the wrath of shareholders since his ill-fated $35.5bn (£22bn) bid for AIA. Thiam launched the bid last [...]
Deals take backseat to organic growth March 9, 2011 WHEN Tidjane Thiam pledged to double Asian profits by 2013, there were more than a few raised eyebrows. He set the target in December of last year, soon after his disastrous attempt to buy the Asian operations of AIG for $35.5bn. Having pulled the plug on the transformational deal, he quickly became a convert to [...]
Northern Foods fight over March 9, 2011 BOPARAN’S takeover of Northern Foods was all but sealed yesterday, as rival Greencore walked away from making a counter bid. Ranjit Singh Boparan, who gatecrashed Greencore’s planned merger with Northern last November, bought Northern shares in the open market yesterday while the share price lingered below his 73p offer price, taking the chicken producer’s share [...]
Clients add £6.1bn to F&C funds March 9, 2011 F&C ASSET Management reported its first net fund inflow in five years yesterday but provided little new detail on its future under new chairman Edward Bramson. Investors lodged £6.1bn with F&C in 2010, creating a net £272m inflow and taking funds under management eight per cent higher to £105.8bn, from £97.8bn in 2009. Chief executive [...]
Shareholder rights are still being ignored March 9, 2011 DEFENDING shareholder rights remains an “uphill struggle” despite almost 150 asset owners signing up to a series of guidelines for best corporate governance behaviour, a key City regulator will say today. Almost 150 asset owners have signed up to the Stewardship Code launched by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) last July to push institutional investors [...]
Freelance rates surging March 9, 2011 RATES for freelancers in the financial sector are soaring as firms scramble to get enough risk and compliance experts to cope with a tidal wave of new regulation. Executive search specialist Kinsey Allen International said day rates for interim managers in the financial sector have climbed 12 per cent so far this year compared to [...]
The brothers who love the high life March 9, 2011 VINCENT Tchenguiz’s 40ft yacht lies empty at a port in Cannes, a party scheduled for tonight on indefinite hold after his arrest. Its bombastic name, Veni Vidi Vici, has been the source of some amusement since the brothers’ vast empire began to unravel in the wake of the recession. If things continue as they have [...]
Former Kaupthing bosses are among those arrested March 9, 2011 TWO other men understood to have been arrested in London as part of the investigation into the Kaupthing collapse are Armann Thorvaldsson, former head of Kaupthing’s UK business and Sigurdur Einarsson, who was Kaupthing’s London-based executive chairman and chief executive. Einarsson briefly featured on Interpol’s wanted list before travelling back to Iceland to be grilled [...]
Uganda uncertainty mars Tullow results March 9, 2011 OIL explorer Tullow Oil posted a 361 per cent rise in pre-tax profit yesterday after a “transformational year”, though its shares fell 3.2 per cent due to concerns about its Ugandan project and some missed forecasts. The firm said its pre-tax profit for the year was $152m (£93.8m) for the year, short of consensus estimates [...]
Retailers slam ban on smoking displays March 9, 2011 RETAILERS yesterday slammed the government’s move to ban tobacco displays as expensive and ineffective. From April next year, large retailers will be forced to hide cigarettes, rolling tobacco and other tobacco products under shop counters, with the same ban enforced for small retailers from April 2015. The counter ban, which follows a ban on vending [...]
