CITY VIEWS: IS THE GOVERNMENT DOING ENOUGH TO HELP BUSINESSES October 25, 2010 MARTIN MENZIES | LLOYDS OF LONDON “Yes and no, it depends on the situation. They’ve probably not done enough for small business which could do with a bit more money in terms of capital lending. They could probably also do with a reduction in taxation on business accounts to be fair.” PAUL CHADHA | WINE [...]
Invesco deal starts to pay October 25, 2010 Money manager Invesco yesterday said its acquisition of Morgan Stanley’s retail fund business bolstered third-quarter sales and aided a 47 per cent jump in profit. Marking Invesco’s first full quarter since the acquisition closed in June, chief executive Martin Flanagan said integration of the unit with $115bn (£73bn) under management was nearly complete. The only [...]
Lockheed Martin approves plans for $3bn share buy-back scheme October 25, 2010 Lockheed Martin, the world’s biggest defence contractor, yesterday said its board approved a new share buyback plan of as much as $3bn (£1.9bn). Lockheed said that through 26 September, it had bought back 169m common shares out of an existing authorisation of 178m shares. As of that date, the firm had about 360m common shares [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 25, 2010 Lazard The financial advisory and asset management firm has hired Fotis Hasiotis as co-head of the European financial sponsors group, based in London. Hasiotis joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was head of EMEA financial sponsors. He originally joined Merrill’s New York team in 2004 from CIBC World Markets, later moving to [...]
Virgin will not compete with rival Eurostar October 25, 2010 VIRGIN Trains has denied suggestions it may launch rival services against Eurostar on the new high-speed line from London to continental Europe. Eurotunnel last week reportedly said Virgin was among those companies who could start running trains from the capital to European cities such as Paris, Brussels and Cologne. German state railway Deutsche Bahn (DB) [...]
Hyundai UK recalls 17,000 cars for checks October 25, 2010 HYUNDAI UK has recalled thousands of cars over fears that winter road de-icing salt may have damaged their suspension systems. The South Korean group is urging owners of 17,000 Santa Fe models made between July 2000 and June 2003 and Trajets from between January 2000 and May 2004 to return them to dealers for checks. [...]
Carlyle in $3bn bid to buy CommScope October 25, 2010 PRIVATE equity firm Carlyle Group is in talks to buy CommScope for about $3bn (£1.9bn), the communications cable maker said. It is the latest sign of a resurgence of acquisitions by private equity firms, which are under pressure to invest billions of dollars of capital raised in the past few years. Private equity takeovers – [...]
Betfair launches an online trading arm October 25, 2010 SHARE trading service LMAX opened for business yesterday, offering contracts for difference on US and European share indices, commodities and UK gilts. The platform, which is majority owned by online sports gambling firm Betfair, adopts its parent’s model as a peer-to-peer exchange rather than a traditional broker. It claims to be the first multi-asset trading [...]
BAE Systems extends tank repair contract October 25, 2010 BAE Systems yesterday signed a $91m (£57.8m) contract with the US Army to upgrade 552 of its Bradley combat vehicles. The British defence giant has already done almost $1bn of manufacturing and repair work for the army since 2007 on over 3,300 Bradley tanks, which are used in front-line combat. “The readiness and sustainment support [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS October 25, 2010 COMPASS Shore Capital rates the support services group a “buy” with a fair value of 600p a share. The broker said a recent earnings per share upgrade to 39p for the year to September 2011 has been driven by margin improvements and a quicker than expected recovery in organic revenue growth. RESOLUTION UBS gives a [...]
