BILL OF THE WEEK August 30, 2010 FIVE City brokers headed down to 1 Lombard Street on Friday lunchtime for a sumptuous seasonal feast of roast grouse. They whetted their appetites with scallops, foie gras and carpaccio of beef, before moving on to main courses of the aforementioned grouse, lobster and an entire suckling pig. Somehow, they also managed to fit in [...]
CITY CRIMS REFUSE TO STEAL BIKES ON DEMAND August 30, 2010 BETWEEN BoJo’s bikes and the craze for cycling to work, two wheels are very much in vogue. So it makes sense to take out insurance for your new mode of transport, right? Wrong. Not if a new campaign by insurer Aviva is anything to go by. Britain’s biggest insurer was so sure it was offering [...]
Taxpayer set to earn £30bn from bailouts August 30, 2010 THE government is set to make almost £30bn from its emergency bailout of British banks, according to new research out today. At the time of the bailout, some observers predicted the taxpayer would end up nursing losses of around £850bn. But The Banker magazine says a combination of recovering profits, rising equity markets and fees [...]
Bank told to explain powers August 30, 2010 THE Bank of England (BoE) needs to spell out to consumers what its powers to curb lending will mean for products such as mortgages, the British Bankers’ Association said yesterday. When it inherits the remit of City regulation from the Financial Services Authority in two years’ time, the BoE will be tasked with macroprudential oversight [...]
FSA hands out bumper round of staff bonuses August 30, 2010 MORE THAN 80 per cent of employees at the Financial Services Authority (FSA) were handed bonuses during the last four years, with some receiving as much as 35 per cent of their salary. Since 2006, 84 per cent of FSA employees were given bonuses that ranged from a few pounds to up to 35 per [...]
Klein earned $10m from Lehman deal August 30, 2010 FORMER Citigroup high-flyer Michael Klein pocketed $10m (£6.4m) as a flat fee for helping Barclays buy Lehman Brothers’ US brokerage at the height of the financial crisis. The investment banker’s pay deal, revealed during the ongoing legal wrangle between the two sides regarding the takeover, was described as being “of great interest” by bankruptcy judge [...]
Battle of the brotherhood August 30, 2010 THE Labour leadership battle is finally drawing to a close. Ballot papers will be sent to party members tomorrow before the victor is announced on 25 September. The contest should have been fascinating, what with the fraternal war between Ed and David Miliband. But it has been a damp squib that has failed to generate [...]
August is an unlikely month for an M&A boom August 30, 2010 WHEN is a bank holiday not a bank holiday? When you are an M&A banker and your business is picking up again after years in the wilderness. They started this year with a big tasty takeover in the form of Kraft’s Cadbury bid, but that was an exception and since then the market for takeovers [...]
3M agrees to buy Cogent in $900m deal August 30, 2010 DIVERSIFIED US manufacturer 3M said it would buy Cogent for $943m (£610m), paying a nearly 18 per cent premium for the maker of identification systems used to screen travellers at border crossings. 3M said it would pay $10.50 a share. Cogent shares jumped 22 per cent to $10.90 in unusually heavy trading, topping the offer [...]
Get on your bike to avoid Tube congestion August 30, 2010 ANYONE who works in the Square Mile will know how empty it can feel in August as City workers – myself included – decamp for a well earned break. And yet, somehow, this summer downturn appears to have no impact whatsoever on the overcrowded tubes, trains and buses bringing commuters into the City at rush-hour. [...]
