HOW DO YOU RATE BARCLAYS RESULTS? February 15, 2011 DAVID BUIK | BGC PARTNERS The profits were quite a bit better than expected. The pre-tax profit was £6.07bn against expectations of £5.7bn. The net for year was £3.56bn against £3.2bn. Tier one capital came in at a pleasing 10.8 per cent up from 10 per cent. RICHARD HUNTER | HARGREAVES LANSDOWN Barclays has opened [...]
World Bank in food warning February 15, 2011 WORLD Bank chief Robert Zoellick yesterday said global food prices have reached “dangerous levels,” and warned that their impact could complicate fragile political and social conditions in the Middle East and Central Asia. World Bank data released yesterday showed higher food prices — mainly for wheat, maize, sugars and edible oils – have pushed 44m [...]
Co-operative supermarket campaign a winner February 15, 2011 ON this page we often assess the impact that crisis or events have on brands but BrandIndex is more generally used for measuring the success or otherwise of advertising with the daily tracking allowing us to study the initial impact and also the wear-out rate. One of the more interesting campaigns this year has been [...]
Yields fall in Spanish and Greek auctions amid cautious optimism February 15, 2011 BORROWING costs for Spain and Greece fell yesterday at treasury bill sales, a sign of cautious optimism that Europe will eventually deal with its debt crisis despite policymakers’ slow progress towards new measures. The yield on Spain’s 12 and 18-month bills fell as much as 50 basis points compared to auctions in January, a mark [...]
BANKERS SWAP CITY FOR DIY AND CAMPFIRES February 15, 2011 NEVER let it be said that the City is averse to getting a little dirt under its fingernails. On 12-13 March members of the banking community will be doing just that at Havens Hospices annual “I’m a banker…get me outta here!” event to raise money for the organisation’s hospices in Essex. Over the weekend, teams [...]
Google lost to Microsoft in Nokia race February 15, 2011 GOOGLE chief executive Eric Schmidt has revealed his firm was in “advanced” talks to provide its Android operating system for Nokia handsets before the Finnish handset maker signed an agreement with Microsoft. Schmidt said Google “would have loved it if they had chosen us over the other guys. We certainly tried.” Nokia instead chose to [...]
Vodafone in swipe at Apple February 15, 2011 VODAFONE chief executive Vittorio Colao made a veiled attack on Apple yesterday as he called for greater openness in the mobile industry. He said he was concerned about firms creating so-called “walled gardens” around content, stressing “the importance of avoiding dominance in any step in the value chain”. Sources close to Vodafone confirmed the comments [...]
Broker team buys its way out of Brewin February 15, 2011 THE CORPORATE advisory and broking team of financial services group Brewin Dolphin has bought its way out of the company to set up a new firm. The asset manager agreed to sell the unit, which sees the departure of 55 professionals, in a deal worth £5m. The team has now established a joint venture with [...]
Lloyds closes 13-man equities business February 15, 2011 GOVERNMENT-backed bank Lloyds has closed the equities division of its investment-banking arm in a shift back to its core banking services. The equity markets division, a minor part of Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, which raises debt and equity finance for mid-sized companies, had worked on share issues such as initial public offerings for clients. The [...]
British Land net asset value up in third quarter February 15, 2011 REAL-ESTATE company British Land yesterday posted 25 per cent growth in third-quarter net asset value (NAV), and said that it is investing in the south-east of England with the purchase of a shopping centre in Barnstaple, Devon, for £30m at a net yield of eight per cent. British Land – whose portfolio is dominated by [...]
