Firms cheer delay to EU’s board quotas October 23, 2012 LAW FIRMS and industry bodies yesterday welcomed the decision to delay a vote on the EU’s plan to force firms to give 40 per cent of board seats to women. Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for justice, citizenship and fundamental rights, was scheduled to officially launch the initiative today, but her peers on the Commission decided [...]
UBS prepares to axe jobs in savings push October 23, 2012 UBS is planning a round of job cuts that could see thousands of people kicked out of its investment banking arm as it struggles to deal with a downturn in business, it was reported last night. The Swiss bank’s top management has been locked in negotiations and will begin to notify staff of the job [...]
City to gain as 10 states push for finance tax October 23, 2012 GERMANY, France and eight other EU countries took a step closer to implementing their own financial transactions tax (FTT) yesterday as the European Commission approved the plans. That means London could gain if transactions, and the jobs that come with them, move to the City. The EC wants the tax on transactions – like share, [...]
Quilter merging with Cheviot to form investment powerhouse October 23, 2012 QUILTER & Co, the investment manager owned by Bridgepoint, is gearing up to merge with smaller rival Cheviot to form one of Britain’s biggest firms in the sector. The companies are believed to be in the final stages of talks and hope to announce the deal in the next week or two. Quilter, which has almost [...]
UK may never make profit on RBS and Lloyds October 23, 2012 HUGE pressures from regulation and slow growth mean the government may have to wait until 2020 to have evan a chance of recovering the bank bailout costs, UK Financial Investments warned yesterday. The head of the body that manages the shareholdings in Lloyds and RBS told MPs it aims to maximise value for the taxpayer, [...]
Break up Whitbread and let Costa star in its own show October 23, 2012 IN a day peppered with corporate disappointments, Whitbread and its shareholders will have been more than happy to have seen their first-half results described as “outstanding” on more than one occasion. The FTSE 100 leisure firm used the term itself in its results presentation, and analysts were also keen to heap praise on a close-to 30 [...]
Mulberry profit warning sends shares crashing October 23, 2012 SHARES in Mulberry lost almost a quarter of their value yesterday after the company became the latest luxury fashion brand to warn on profit. The handbag and leather goods maker said that while British retail sales were meeting expectations, a slowdown in international sales and it decision to shrink its wholesale network meant full-year profits [...]
Trinity Mirror stock tumbles as it is pulled into hacking scandal October 23, 2012 SHARES in Trinity Mirror slumped yesterday as the newspaper publisher became embroiled in the phone hacking scandal that has cost News International hundreds of millions of pounds. Trinity Mirror – which publishes the Daily and Sunday Mirror titles and the People newspaper – saw shares fall more than 10 per cent after it was alleged [...]
Experian buys Brazil bureau October 23, 2012 UK CREDIT checking firm Experian yesterday agreed to pay a consortium of banks $1.5bn (£940m) to take full control of São Paulo-based data provider Serasa. The blue chip company, which took a 70 per cent stake in Serasa in 2007, agreed to take a further 29.6 per cent plus a 0.4 per cent cash adjustment [...]
Advisers Goldman Sachs October 23, 2012 ANTHONY GUTMAN | GOLDMAN SACHS Experian, which yesterday snapped up Serasa on the back of a put and call option agreed between the firm and minority bank stakeholders in 2007, was advised on the complex deal by investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The deal makers worked out of both banks’ offices in London. [...]
