BEST OF THE BROKERS May 4, 2010 INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS Credit Suisse has raised its target price for InterContinental Hotels by 20 per cent to 1,290p and has issued the hotel chain with an “outperform” rating. Credit Suisse upgrades 2010 earnings per share (EPS) forecasts for InterContinental by 18 per cent, due to stronger trading expectations for the Americas. With its forecasts ahead [...]
Reuters profit down a third May 4, 2010 THOMSON Reuters saw its quarterly profits plunge by almost a third as it continued to be hit by the aftermath of the recession. However, the news and data provider said it expects to see a recovery in the second half of this year as the haltering recovery improves sales. The firm earned $127m (£84m) in [...]
A Lib-Lab coalition would be bad for business May 4, 2010 I can’t vote in this country, but I can pay tax, so I feel that that gives me some right to share with you my feelings and those of more than a hundred leading entrepreneurs in the UK as the election approaches. For entrepreneurs, a Liberal Democrat-Labour coalition would be disastrous for British business. The [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 4, 2010 Principal Global Investors The asset management firm has appointed Seema Shah as a strategist and economist in its London-based global fixed income team. Shah was previously an economist at Capital Economics, focusing on macroeconomic analysis of the UK and European economies. Prior to that, she was an economist within the macro consulting group at accountancy [...]
SOC GEN’S ROGUE TELLS HIS SIDE OF THE STORY May 4, 2010 MILLION-dollar profits and banking “orgies” sound nice and juicy at the best of times, but especially so when they involve a tell-all book penned by a man at the centre of some of the most high-profile rogue trading allegations ever to rock the financial world. Jerome Kerviel has made a household name of himself after [...]
CITY EYE May 4, 2010 A bottle of wine is selected for tasting from the 45,000 original contenders nestled at the Barbican centre for the International Wine Challenge event.
Music is still playing for Latin America carnival May 4, 2010 LATIN America has always been seen as dangerously volatile by many institutional investors, but the recent stock market carnival is looking like a party too good to miss. The region’s leading economy, Brazil, is now firmly established as one of the BRIC big four. It is also due to host the World Cup in 2014 [...]
THREE CHEERS FOR MARKET DARWINISM May 4, 2010 MANAGING DIRECTOR, ARTEMIS ASKED by a journalist what had given him most trouble as prime minister, Harold Macmillan replied, loftily: “Events, dear boy. Events.” Uncertainty surrounds the result of tomorrow’s election. But whoever wins will know, sooner or later, how Macmillan felt. Stock markets certainly do. On economic and corporate news that was consistently better [...]
Moving away from equities can pay May 4, 2010 THE markets may have recovered from the credit crunch, but the investment community is still trying to navigate a post-crisis world and reduce portfolio risk. New research by Towers Watson, the professional services firm, has found that although many pension funds and institutional investors still rely on equities to generate their returns, in reality a [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS May 4, 2010 EXPENSIVE AND ATTRACTIVE TRUSTS Stockbroking firm Killik & Co yesterday listed three listed investment trusts that it finds expensive and three that look attractive from a discount perspective. The expensive trusts are Better Capital, Polar Capital Technology and 3i Infrastructure while Utilico Emerging Markets, Acorn Income Fund and BlackRock New Energy are attractive. In terms [...]