FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS August 24, 2010 PICTET LAUNCHES ENVIRONMENT FUND Swiss private bank Pictet is capitalising on the latest move towards more socially responsible investing with the launch of its Pictet-Environmental Megatrend Selection, a UCITS-III compliant euro-denominated fund. The fund will invest in Pictet’s global sector and theme funds: Water, Clean Energy, Timber, and Agriculture and apply environmental, social and corporate [...]
Immigration cap will prevent the City flourishing August 24, 2010 GROUP CEO, NORTON ROSE GROUP LIKE many other international businesses in the City, Norton Rose Group is managing the impact of the new immigration caps, which were introduced this summer by the UK government. A new temporary cap was announced on 29 June and interim limits came into force on 19 July, lasting through to [...]
Dodd-Frank offers whistleblowing incentives August 24, 2010 FAEGRE & BENSON LLP THE bell rings to open and close each day of Wall Street trading. But corporate ears now are on the listen for a different sound—the trill of whistles blown by employees bringing allegations of fraud to the SEC. The Dodd-Frank financial reform act introduces large monetary incentives for whistleblowers and shields [...]
Feisty, fun, and a little confused August 24, 2010 THE Mazda3 MPS was once the most powerful front-wheel-drive hot hatch you could buy, an accolade that now belongs to Ford’s Focus RS. Even so, it’s quite possible you may not even be aware of its existence because the model before this one was so understated there was literally nothing about the way it looked [...]
CAR TALK August 24, 2010 CITROEN’S LIMITED EDITION HOT HATCH This is the DS3 Racing, the latest hot hatch from Citroën. With a specially tuned 1.6-litre 207hp engine, a top speed of 146mph and a 0-62mph time of just 6.5 seconds the car has been extensively modified by Citroën’s Racing division. The car has an upgraded chassis, running gear and [...]
POTASH IN TALKS TO BLOCK BHP BID August 23, 2010 CANADIAN fertiliser producer PotashCorp is courting a range of potential “white knight” partners in a determined attempt to see off a $40bn (£25.5bn) hostile bid from mining giant BHP Billiton, the company confirmed yesterday. The world’s largest potash producer said it had been approached by and had initiated contact with a number of third parties, [...]
Tories aided by Monaco hedge fund August 23, 2010 CONTROVERSIAL hedge fund manager Jon Wood handed the Conservative party a £500,000 donation two days before the general election in May. Wood, who runs the Monaco-based SRM Global investment firm, was the Tories’ second most generous corporate supporter during the campaign, data from the Electoral Commission revealed yesterday. News of the gift from one of [...]
Germans back banking levy August 23, 2010 GERMAN Ministers will tomorrow throw their weight behind a levy on bank assets designed to raise €1bn (£820m) a year. The announcement is part of a pact between the UK, German and French authorities to introduce parallel taxes starting in 2011. The German levy, which will enter a fund used in the event of future [...]
Swannell is the right man for M&S August 23, 2010 WHEN I had breakfast with Robert Swannell, the newly appointed chairman of Marks & Spencer recently, it was clear that the former investment banker was in anything but wind down mode. After three decades of working on mergers and acquisitions, sometimes over seven-day weeks involving late nights, Swannell could have been forgiven for putting his [...]
BoE’s Weale warns of dip August 23, 2010 BRITAIN faces “significant” risk of a fresh slump into recession, a leading policymaker at the Bank of England admitted yesterday as independent economists slammed the Bank for its complacency in the face of savage public sector spending cuts. Dr Martin Weale, the newest member of the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), said it would be [...]
