BEST OF THE BROKERS April 12, 2010 BARCLAYS Seymour Pierce has issued a “sell” recommendation on Barclays, noting that during the last seven years, the bank has grown income by 18 per cent, while avoiding many of the toxic assets and poorly timed acquisitions. Barclays Capital’s top line could be 33 times the revenue of the UK retail bank, which the broker [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 12, 2010 Shepherd and Wedderburn The law firm has elected James Will, the head of its corporate practice, to the position of chairman after over 20 years as a partner at the firm. Corporate partner Andrew Blain takes over as head of corporate, while Guy Winter has been promoted to partner in the same division. Winter joined [...]
Ladbrokes in Italian sale April 12, 2010 LADBROKES has agreed to sell its Italian retail betting and gaming business Itali for €5.25m (£4.61m). Italian gaming group Cogetech will take over the business after its cash offer was accepted. In 2009 the Labrokes’ Italian retail business made a loss of £9.9m and at 31 December 2009 the carrying value of the business was [...]
A big state can’t do it all April 12, 2010 A GOVERNMENT big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have,” so said Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States in August 1974. “Nonsense,” you say. “We don’t live in some sort of autocratic dictatorship. Our politicians respect the citizenry and serve the [...]
BBC Worldwide shake-up could see Radio Times sold April 12, 2010 THE BBC may seek a commercial partner for its portfolio of magazines in a major shake-up of its Worldwide division. Its iconic Radio Times magazine, launched in 1923 by Lord Reith, may be sold off completely as part of the radical plans. It will also look at potential tie-ups with a number of rival publishers [...]
BAE Systems tops list of world’s biggest defence supply companies April 12, 2010 BAE Systems was the world’s top arms supplier in 2008, outstripping US defence groups for the first time due to demand for mine protection in Afghanistan, a report said yesterday. The study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) showed BAE had displaced US aviation firm Boeing from the top spot. Boeing dropped to [...]
China is setting the stage now for a yuan revaluation this summer April 12, 2010 THERE had been speculation that the Chinese authorities would use this weekend’s Bo’ao Forum – billed as China’s Davos – to announce a revaluation of the yuan. While observers hoping for a move were disappointed, there have been signs over recent weeks that Beijing is laying the groundwork, both in the financial markets and in [...]
Banks and energy companies push the FTSE slightly higher but miners struggle April 12, 2010 Gains from banks and energy stocks outweighed weaker miners to leave Britain’s top share index slightly higher by the close yesterday, as anxiety about debt-plagued Greece eased, supporting risk appetite. The FTSE 100 ended the day 6.67 points higher at 5,777.65, slipping back after hitting an intra-day peak since June 2008 of 5,803.71 early in [...]
New York hits 11,000 on higher earnings forecasts April 12, 2010 The Dow industrials closed above 11,000 for the first time in almost 19 months yesterday as expectations of solid first-quarter earnings spurred buying in financial, energy and industrial sectors. Even so, some investors said stock prices already reflect lofty expectations for first-quarter results, with both the Dow and the S&P 500 near 19-month highs. “People [...]
European stocks are worth a long position April 12, 2010 IN THE next few weeks we should get a better idea of how far the economic recovery has boosted profits at Europe’s largest companies as they report first quarter earnings. So far consensus estimates for earnings growth this year is a whopping 39 per cent up on last year. This week French luxury goods group [...]
