Mark Kleinman: Glazers could see biggest ever football club sale November 25, 2022 It was Sir Alex Ferguson who coined the phrase “squeaky bum time” in reference to those anxious moments at the end of seasons when Champions League and Premier League titles and FA Cups hung in the balance. Fergie’s employers for the last eight years of his reign, the Glazer family, are about to undergo their [...]
Mark Kleinman: Vodafone pressure, steel woes and a new business boss October 6, 2022 Mark Kleinman is the man the City reads – and in his fortnightly column for City A.M., he shares his insight and analysis. Vodafone boss hopes deal eases the pressure At last, an engaged tone. Two months after I wrote in this column that Nick Read, the Vodafone chief executive, was looking nervously over his [...]
Mark Kleinman’s exclusive column: Downing Street business adviser pondering exit? June 15, 2022 Raging inflation, labour shortages, a weakening currency, supply chain chaos and – in the eyes of many colleagues and opponents alike – a lame duck prime minister: if you thought that being a CEO in such a climate was tough, spare a thought for his own business liaison chief. Alex Hickman, a co-founder of the [...]
Mark Kleinman’s Column: Walgreens needs different prescription for future of Boots June 1, 2022 As an octogenarian with a literary penchant and more than half a century in business behind him, Stefano Pessina will be as aware as anyone of “time’s winged chariot hurrying near”. But is his sense of the passing of time in danger of impairing the judgement of the notoriously dogged and astute Italian dealmaker? The [...]
Mark Kleinman: Light finally shines on Schroders’ M&G ambitions December 2, 2021 Sky News’ Mark Kleinman is the man the City reads – and in his fortnightly column for City A.M., he shares his insight and analysis. Schroders is solved The mystery is finally solved. For months, fund management executives have puzzled over two aspects of Schroders’ aborted ambitions to take over M&G Investments and create a [...]
Mark Kleinman: Will Barclays be able to explain their backing for Staley? November 4, 2021 Sky News’ Mark Kleinman is the man the City reads – and in his fortnightly column for City A.M., he shares his insight and analysis. Barclays in the headlines again What is it about Barclays and rough-Diamond bosses? In the end, the surprise was not so much that Jes Staley left the British bank mired [...]
Flybe infected by aviation sector’s malaise March 6, 2020 As ministerial tweets go, the mid-January proclamation by the business and transport secretaries that Flybe’s future had been salvaged will surely endure as among the most ill-judged of Boris Johnson’s government. Barely 54 days later, Flybe has become just another corporate carcass, joining Monarch and Thomas Cook among the airlines which failed to cope with [...]
Pension funds usher in new voting climate February 21, 2020 Libor settlements, the use of Mervyn King’s eyebrow to fire a chief executive, a boss embroiled in a whistleblowing scandal: Barclays is used to finding itself cast as the City’s guinea pig. Shareaction’s climate change resolution, to be voted on at the bank’s annual general meeting in May, is the latest example. The pressure group [...]
Listed firms need public flogging January 31, 2020 The £18.5 trillion in assets managed by members of the Investor Forum would cover a fair few shopping trips to Poundland, and buy its parent’s shares hundreds of times over — but will public market shareholders get the chance? That’s one of the questions indirectly prompted by the forum’s latest annual review, which highlights the [...]
Flybe rescue secrecy is absurd January 17, 2020 So much for open government. It shouldn’t be too much to expect the ministry responsible for the public finances to disclose the potential liability to taxpayers of a private company bailout. Yet in the Treasury’s statement about the government-backed rescue of the regional airline Flybe this week, there was scant detail and even fewer numbers. [...]
