City dealmaker is a prime asset July 6, 2011 SIMON Borrows’ move to fund manager 3i is great news for its shareholders, who gain one of the City’s best-known rainmakers. Borrows, chairman of Greenhill & Co since 2010 and founder of its European business in 2008, advises the UK’s biggest companies, including G4S, Tesco, Informa, Inchcape and National Express. He has also advised 3i [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HAS 3i’S PERFORMANCE IMPROVED? July 6, 2011 MICK GILLIGAN | KILLIK & CO Investments and realisations increased significantly in the period compared to the same period last year and Queen reiterated his encouraging stance. 3i shares have performed well since April and this reaffirms the positive progress being made. We remain positive on the shares at the current 18 per cent discount [...]
Facebook in tie-up with Skype July 6, 2011 MARK Zuckerberg yesterday announced a tie-up with video calling giant Skype as it bolsters its site against the threat of Google’s rival social network. The move, which will allow Facebook users to make video calls, is part of a larger redesign that will also add a group chat function and update the appearance of the [...]
US edges closer to budget accord July 6, 2011 A TOP Republican floated a tax compromise last night that could revive hopes for a budget deal, as President Barack Obama warned the US could spiral back into recession if a deal is not reached soon. Eric Cantor, the number two official in the House of Representatives, said his party could agree to close some [...]
PhosAgro share sale fully covered July 6, 2011 RUSSIAN fertiliser group PhosAgro has taken enough orders to fully cover its $500m (£312m) London share sale. The order book for shares being sold in the company was fully covered by the end of last week, just days into its roadshow of investors. Bankers on the deal went out with a fully covered message yesterday. [...]
HSBC PLAYS MUSICAL CHAIRS IN M&A ROLES July 6, 2011 CHANGE at the top at HSBC. The Capitalist has learned that rising star Maged Latif, who joined the bank from Goldman Sachs two years ago, has been fast-tracked from deputy head of M&A to co-head of global financial institutions group (FIG) advisory. Latif, who made his mark advising the government on taking Northern Rock into [...]
Barroso hits out at bias in downgrades July 6, 2011 EUROPE lashed out at ratings agencies yesterday after a Moody’s downgrade of Portugal sent peripheral debt costs soaring across the continent. In a sign of growing frustration among EU officials, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso attacked ratings agencies for being anti-European. “It seems strange that there is not a single rating agency coming from [...]
Almost a third of banks could fail EU stress tests July 6, 2011 MORE than a quarter of the European Union’s major banks are set to fail the region’s stress tests, which are expected to be released next week, Moody’s said yesterday. The agency said 26 out of 91 banks being tested are likely to need extra government assistance. Banks are anxiously awaiting the results of the tests, which [...]
Fraud office to look into ETFs July 6, 2011 THE Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched a probe into the burgeoning market for Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to establish whether it has the tools to prosecute wrongdoing in the industry. The agency, which prosecutes white collar crime, is examining the risks posed by the products and to what extent they could be open to [...]
Germany calls for bond swap July 6, 2011 GERMANY has put a Greek bond swap back on the table as a model for private sector involvement in fresh aid for Athens, German finance ministers said yesterday. The country’s renewed positive stance on the bond swap plan comes after warnings from ratings agencies that France’s plan of a bond rollover would amount to a [...]
