London IPO market is close to seizure June 7, 2011 GLENCORE recently pulled off a $11bn flotation, London’s largest ever, but the past few months have otherwise been pretty desultory in terms of new companies coming to market. Some blame last year’s flotation of Ocado, the online grocer, for starting the rot. Ocado’s share price has recovered well from its early post-IPO malaise but bankers [...]
The media-shy mastermind behind an aggressive boutique operation June 7, 2011 STJ Advisors operates as a partnership led by John St John, a capital markets banker who has spent 25 years at various investment banks in the capital-raising business. He co-founded the firm, which was originally known as Fredericks Place Advisors, in 2008, after a career that included stints at Nomura, Citi/Salomon Smith Barney and Dresdner [...]
We all need to show that London is open for business June 7, 2011 W E need to take seriously any concerns that firms find the UK a more difficult place in which to raise capital. There is no doubt that other financial centres have long sought to replicate London’s world leading success and, in so doing, to capture some of the market share. Should they succeed in achieving [...]
BlackRock sparked IPO row with explosive open letter June 7, 2011 THE ROW over banks’ IPO activities was first ignited after BlackRock, the world’s largest institutional investor, sent an explosive letter to several leading investment banks. The devastating broadside on the way company listings on the stock market are handled exposed how some banks were providing clients with unrealistic valuations for their companies in order to [...]
US stocks dip after Fed’s Bernanke talks down QE3 June 7, 2011 STOCKS in the US dropped last night after Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke acknowledged a slowdown in the economy, but offered no suggestion of a third round of quantitative easing (dubbed QE3). The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.16 per cent to end at 12,070.81, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.09 per [...]
MPs raise concerns over new panel’s independence June 7, 2011 CONCERNS have been raised over the independence of the new body being set up to spot potential crises in the British economy by an influential committee of MPs. The Treasury select committee said it was “not so clear” whether Alistair Clark, a former Bank of England employee, would be sufficiently independent to sit on the [...]
HMV secures bank loan but cedes equity June 7, 2011 STRUGGLING music retailer HMV agreed to give its banks a five per cent equity stake in return for a costly last-ditch loan refinancing yesterday. The refinancing deal struck with lenders RBS and Lloyds gives HMV £220m in two loans and a revolving credit facility and wins it breathing space as it fights for survival. But [...]
Lloyds faces branches headache June 7, 2011 LLOYDS could be pressured into selling the 620 branches it has on the block to a bank that already has a presence on the High Street, City A.M. understands. A Treasury source said that the bank could be asked to sign a deal with an existing “challenger bank” that has enough branches to rival the industry’s [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 7, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES EVERCORE SET TO ENHANCE ITS ROLE IN EUROPE WITH £86M LEXICON BUY Evercore Partners, the US investment bank, is set to bolster its position in Europe with a deal to buy Lexicon Partners, the London-based advisory firm co-founded by Andrew Sibbald, for about £86m. UBS IN PAY PLEDGE TO TRY AND STEM DEFECTIONS [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW GOOD A DEAL IS THIS REFINANCING FOR HMV? June 7, 2011 NICK BUBB | ARDEN PARTNERS This seems to us to be a triumph of hope over experience. We expect the higher interest charge to wipe out any earnings before interest and tax this year and we note from the statement that current trading still remains very poor. HMV is now trading on nearly 4.5 times [...]
