UK’s biggest 10 hedgies sit on £6.6bn fortune November 25, 2012 THE combined personal fortunes of the UK’s top 10 hedge fund executives weighed in at £6.6bn last year, a study out yesterday revealed, with Brevan Howard co-founder Alan Howard the richest hedge fund executive in the country with £1.4bn of assets. Data from Hedge Forensics, published in the inaugural Sunday Times Hedge Fund Rich List [...]
CVC gears up for sixth fund as it eyes water utilities assets November 25, 2012 PRIVATE equity giant CVC Capital Partners is set to push on with its sixth fund raising venture after testing the water with investors for a new €11bn (£8.9bn) fund. The firm, which owns Formula One and is co-owner of AA and Saga parent company Acromas, is soliciting investor interest for a successor to its CVC [...]
Item says weak investment will persist till 2015 November 25, 2012 BUSINESS investment will be stuck below its pre-crisis peak until at least 2015 because of weak confidence, Item forecasted this morning, calling for the Comprehensive Spending Review to be brought forward to give businesses more clarity over future spending cuts. Firms will increase investment spending by just 2.3 per cent across the whole of 2012, [...]
Firms say National insurance holiday would boost hiring November 25, 2012 SIMPLER taxes, an extended national insurance contributions (NICs) holiday and a shake-up of the banking system to promote competition will all help small firms grow, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) claimed today, pushing for its members to get help in the Autumn Statement next week. The lobby group’s submission to the chancellor also called [...]
Call for a clear exports vision November 25, 2012 THE UK needs a long-term vision to cut taxes and boost exports, manufacturers’ organisation EEF claimed today, arguing that firms need certainty if they are to invest and grow. Increasing tax breaks for investment should be a start, it argued, as “the capital allowances system is the second least supportive in the OECD.” And the [...]
Firms call for tax breaks for infrastructure November 25, 2012 BUSINESSES want the chancellor to revive plans to inject cash into large road and rail upgrades with tax breaks, a survey out today suggests. Senior tax professionals at some of Britain’s biggest firms put tax incentives for those investing in infrastructure at the top of their wish list for next week’s Autumn Statement. Tax credits [...]
Think-tank supports controversial raid on pensions tax relief November 25, 2012 AN INFLUENTIAL think-tank has backed the chancellor’s plans to raid high-earning savers’ pensions tax relief in next week’s Autumn Statement. Centre for Policy Studies research fellow Michael Johnson said in a paper out today that the current incentives to save for a pension are “crude and mis-directed, primarily towards the wealthy”. George Osborne previously lowered [...]
Inflation and poor returns turn screws on defined benefit plans November 25, 2012 FIRMS with defined benefit (DB) pension schemes are still struggling to get their funding holes under control, research out today claims. Low investment returns coupled with heightened inflation has left FTSE 350 firms falling even further behind the funding requirements of their DB programmes. PwC’s pension support tracker has stood at 74 out of 100 [...]
…but coalition struggles with transport work November 25, 2012 AMBITIOUS plans to upgrade the UK’s transport network have become snared in political and planning delays, the British Chambers of Commerce said today. Six key projects remain stuck in the starting blocks, the BCC complained, while a further two have been scrapped for the foreseeable future. The chancellor’s Autumn Statement last year set out details [...]
PwC remains City’s top auditor while JP Morgan holds the top adviser spot November 25, 2012 PWC has retained its position as the City’s most-favoured auditor, figures out today reveal, although KPMG has managed to sign up a number of FTSE 250 clients. Research from data consultancy Morningstar shows that PwC has 367 stock market clients, and 42 of the FTSE 100 – almost double that of second-place KPMG. However, KPMG [...]
