Surprise after services grow August 3, 2011 THERE was a rare piece of good news for George Osborne yesterday, after a survey showed the all-important services sector growing at its fastest pace in four months in July. The Markit / CIPS services purchasing managers’ index rose to 55.4 last month, ahead of June’s reading of 53.9 and confounding expectations for a slowdown [...]
Evolution’s turn in the bid spotlight August 3, 2011 Evolution chief executive Alex Snow, a former rugby player for Harlequins, is said to have been looking less than enthusiastic about things recently. Like others in the small cap market in the City he has been bemoaning a lack of corporate finance activity, including a dearth of share offerings (the IPO of Nat Rothschild’s Vallares, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 3, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES HEFNER SON-IN-LAW SETTLES CASE The son-in-law of Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy Enterprises, has been sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly trading shares based on secret information he learnt from his wife, the magazine publisher’s long-time chief executive. William Marovitz, who is married to Hefner’s daughter Christie, agreed to [...]
Smartphones are taking over our daily lives August 3, 2011 THE latest iPhone or Blackberry may be a must-have fashion accessory but a new survey suggests smartphones are now shaping the way we behave. Over a quarter of adults and nearly half of all teens own a smartphone, with uptake increasing at a blistering rate, according to a study by media regulator Ofcom. When asked [...]
RBS set to cut thousands of banker jobs August 3, 2011 RBS is planning to lay off thousands of investment bankers over the next eighteen months as it concludes its integration of ABN Amro. The bank could lay off some 2,000 people by the end of 2012 in its global banking and markets division. But a source told City A.M. that it is not clear exactly where [...]
Cable recruits Sir John Rose for investor probe August 3, 2011 FORMER Rolls-Royce chief executive Sir John Rose will join Vince Cable’s inquiry aimed at stopping short-termism among equities investors. The industrialist held the top job at Rolls-Royce for almost 15 years. Cable is a long-standing admirer of Sir John, calling him a “champion of UK manufacturing” when he stepped down earlier this year. This is [...]
Wellcome Trust out of Olympic legacy running August 3, 2011 EAST London will no longer benefit from the tech city promised by the Wellcome Trust as part of its £1bn post-Olympics development, after the health science charity yesterday dropped out of the Olympic Park race. City A.M. understands the bid put forward by the Wellcome Trust with Hutchison Whampoa will no longer be progressed, with [...]
StanChart upbeat as its revenues rise August 3, 2011 STANDARD Chartered beat expectations with an 17 per cent jump in pre-tax profit, it revealed yesterday, with a drop in impairments and a rising in top-line income boosting the bank’s earnings to £3.6bn. But chief executive Peter Sands warned that “our biggest risk by far remains regulatory risk”, over and above the prospect of a [...]
Greek bailout hits SocGen as profits miss expectations August 3, 2011 FRENCH bank Societe Generale showed the scars of its share of a Greek bailout in its second quarter results, helping to push its 2012 profit goal out of reach. France’s second-biggest bank warned its aim of €6bn (£5.2bn) in net profit in 2012, reiterated as recently as May this year, would now be “difficult to [...]
UniCredit sticks to forecasts as results impress August 3, 2011 ITALY’S biggest bank UniCredit could meet analysts’ forecast for 2011 results despite being pummelled by a spreading Eurozone debt crisis, chief executive Federico Ghizzoni said yesterday. Ghizzoni said the bank completed 85 per cent of its 2011 funding plan last month, insulating itself from higher costs as Italian government bond yields hit euro-era records. Speaking [...]
