Scots housebuilder Cala Group mulls sell-off to Patron Capital January 20, 2013 UPMARKET housing developer Cala Group has a new front runner in the race to snap up the 138 year-old firm – private equity shop Patron Capital led by ex-Lehman Brothers banker Keith Breslauer. Cala Group, the first Scottish company ever to list on the London Stock Exchange, is in exclusive talks with Breslauer’s Patron Capital [...]
City Moves for 21 January 2013 | Who’s switching jobs January 20, 2013 Stonehage Group The European family office has appointed Rupert Hague-Holmes as a director in its private client and trust department. He joins from Kleinwort Benson, where he was head of legal services and group legal director. Hague-Holmes was also previously managing director of Close Brothers’s offshore businesses. Charles Taylor Tito Soso has been appointed group [...]
Best of the Brokers January 20, 2013 CREDIT SUISSE Morgan Stanley has upgraded Credit Suisse from “equal-weight” to “overweight” and upped its target price from SwFr25.50 to SwFr30 on expectation of gritty costs cuts from the Swiss bank. This could lead to a return on tangible equity of around 14 per cent, even on flat 2012 earnings, limiting downside. BG GROUP RBC [...]
Figures to show the state of the UK economy as Davos meeting begins January 20, 2013 FIGURES this week from the Office for National Statistics will reveal whether the UK economy shrank in the fourth quarter of 2012 and over the year as a whole. “We expect the economy to have contracted by 0.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of last year which would limit year-on-year growth to 0.2 [...]
US earnings likely to push stocks higher January 20, 2013 WITH earnings momentum on the rise, the S&P 500 seems to have few hurdles ahead as it continues to power forward, its all-time high a not-so-distant goal. The US equity benchmark closed last week at a new five-year high on strong housing and labour market data and a string of earnings that beat lowered expectations. [...]
How modern technology and new working practices can save the NHS January 20, 2013 THE dust has finally settled on the government’s controversial health reforms, but the NHS is not out of the woods yet. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest forecasts suggest that its best-case scenario will see health spending remain flat for the rest of the decade. The challenge to do more with less is intensifying. So [...]
Outward-looking reforms in Europe depend on the City’s guiding hand January 20, 2013 DESPITE being postponed at the last minute, it is clear from excerpts trailed in the media that the Prime Minister’s speech on the EU will set out a stark choice for both the UK and Europe. The vision outlined presents a Britain that remains a “committed and active” member of the European Union – albeit [...]
The protectionist beast is back in a subtly fresh form January 20, 2013 IT’S a classic: during every recession, protectionism resurfaces. After four years of economic turmoil, unemployment is critical in the US (7.7 per cent) and Europe (11.7 per cent). Obviously, governments want to protect national companies and jobs, especially if they want to be re-elected. But if protectionism is back, it’s also more subtle. Gone are [...]
Does the crisis in North Africa represent the start of a new wave of geopolitical instability? January 20, 2013 YES Riccardo Fabiani The struggle for control of Mali, which spurred the French to intervene, as well as the hostage crisis in Algeria underscores the growing instability in North Africa. In the past few years, the security environment in these areas has steadily deteriorated, as criminal networks, terrorist groups, and insurgencies exploited power vacuums. Porous [...]
Letters to the editor January 20, 2013 Outside Europe [Re: Would leaving the EU be a positive move for business in Britain?, Friday] Roland Rudd’s suggestion that we would not have access to European markets if we left the EU, if true, belies the true nature of the entity. There is no suggestion from Eurosceptics that Britain would not be willing to [...]
