Ex-L&G chief Tim Breedon ups Barclays’ reforming credentials October 15, 2012 FORMER Legal & General boss Tim Breedon was yesterday appointed as a non-executive director of Barclays. The first such appointment under new chairman Sir David Walker represents another attempt to restore the bank’s tarnished reputation, as Breedon has a reputation as a critic of excessive executive pay, and has publicly looked into ways to boost [...]
Office of Fair Trading set to beef up its investigation procedures October 15, 2012 THE UK’s Office of Fair Trading will this morning announce changes to its investigation procedures, as it attempts to rejig its systems in the wake of high-profile failures on appeal. The changes are expected to include introducing “collective decision making”, meaning that each case will be handed on after the first phase of investigation to ensure [...]
MPs could lose gold-plated pension pots October 15, 2012 MEMBERS of Parliament could lose their gold-plated pensions under proposals to be considered as part of a review of their salary and benefits. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) yesterday launched its consultation on the future of MPs’ pay, which includes questions on parliament’s final salary pension scheme. Others proposals include linking MPs’ salaries to [...]
Cameron calls upon Lords to boost trade October 15, 2012 PRIME Minister David Cameron is today expected to hand trade roles to prominent peers as part of a wider plan to boost the UK’s overseas trade. Under the plans, first reported by Sky News, leading members of the House of Lords will be allocated specific countries or regions and asked to exploit their connections to help [...]
Polling firm YouGov pays first divi as brand monitoring grows October 15, 2012 ONLINE pollster YouGov yesterday announced its first dividend after benefiting from growth at its brand-monitoring business. The Aim-listed company will pay investors 0.5p a share after growing revenues by four per cent to £58.1m in the year to 31 July. Profits were up six per cent at £5.6m. YouGov made its name with political polling, [...]
LVMH suffers third quarter slowdown October 15, 2012 The worldwide boom in luxury goods appeared to be slowing down yesterday, as LVMH revealed sales grew just six per cent into the third quarter – after eight per cent growth in the second quarter, and 12 per cent growth in the first quarter. The drop came from reduced demand for high-end goods, said the [...]
Palio to float its £150m debt fund in London October 15, 2012 DEBT investor Palio Capital Partners, headed by former Gresham Private Equity managing director Michael Henebery, yesterday unveiled plans to float a fund in London aimed at tapping debt-starved small and medium sized enterprises. Palio UK Mid-Market Debt Fund is seeking to raise more than £150m from investors for the fund, which is set to list [...]
Cinven draws on new funds to buy latest pharma firm October 15, 2012 CINVEN, the European private equity giant, yesterday announced it had bought UK pharmaceutical firm Amdipharm in a bespoke deal using cash raised for its new Cinven V flagship fund. The £367m purchase of the family owned business follows on from the acquisition in August of another healthcare business, Mercury Pharma from HgCapital for £465m. Cinven [...]
Permira set for Iglo finance restructure October 15, 2012 IGLO Group, the maker of Birds Eye frozen foods owned by private equity firm Permira, is set to restructure its finances by extending its loan maturity and issuing more debt to boost the company’s growth potential. Permira is set to get the thumbs up from its lenders to extend the maturity of €1.4bn (£1.12bn) of [...]
Grant Thornton lifts revenues by 10 per cent October 15, 2012 PROFESSIONAL services firm Grant Thornton yesterday revealed a 10.6 per cent rise in revenues for the year to 30 June, led by growth in its recovery and reorganisation arm. Profits before tax rose by £1m, but average distributable profit per partner dipped slightly to £335,000, two per cent lower than last year, which the firm [...]
