CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 7, 2010 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS Christine Cross, a former Tesco director, has joined the accountancy firm as chief retail adviser. Cross currently holds non-executive directorships at High Street retailer Next and Empire, the second largest Canadian grocery chain. She was at Tesco between 1989 and 2003, latterly as business development director. She is also currently a retail adviser to [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 7, 2010 BARCLAYS Shore Capital has reiterated its “buy” recommendation, saying it continues to view Barclays as the most attractively valued UK bank on a risk/return basis. The broker has downgraded earnings and rebased dividend forecasts, reflecting a quieter fourth quarter for BarCap, tighter margins and a focus on capital preservation. ROYAL DUTCH SHELL Morgan Stanley says [...]
Tullow hangs on for Uganda oil approval February 7, 2010 TULLOW Oil is edging closer to gaining full approval from the Ugandan government to snap up $1.5bn (£959m) worth of oil fields in the country, as it remains locked in discussions with two separate oil majors over the structure of a future partnership to develop the assets. Tullow’s path to buying the fields from Heritage [...]
A new mood of fear is pulling down markets February 7, 2010 THE TERM double-dip is over-used; our viewers always get upset with us if we refer to it too often. But where is this cycle going? It’s certainly not looking good. February seemed to start off well with decent earnings reports and some stronger data from the US, but at the end of last week sovereign [...]
China economy to grow 10pc this year February 7, 2010 AN OFFICIAL think tank has forecast China’s GDP will expand around 10 per cent in 2010, driven by investment and domestic consumption, the official Xinhua agency reported yesterday. Strong first-quarter growth of 11 per cent will slow slightly for the rest of the year, with the pace of expansion dipping just below 10 per cent [...]
50 top female hedge fund stars named February 7, 2010 FIFTY of the most powerful women in hedge funds have been named in a new survey celebrating the achievements of the fairer sex in an environment traditionally dominated by alpha males. Fourteen London-based women are among those named in the survey, published by the Hedge Fund Journal and PricewaterhouseCoopers, making the capital the second largest [...]
Confidence high among firms February 7, 2010 THE slow economic recovery has not dampened the spirits of UK business owners, a survey by business adviser RSM Tenon has found. Many of the survey respondents said the situation will not take long to improve, with 59 per cent of those polled indicating that they felt confident about potential opportunities for their businesses over [...]
Positive outlook from Aim-listed companies for the coming year February 7, 2010 CONFIDENCE among Aim-listed companies has increased, with nearly nine in 10 reporting a positive outlook for their own business over the next 12 months, a survey of 142 companies has found. This compares favourably with 2008, when only 51 per cent of those polled were as confident. Financial services group Smith and Williamson, which conducted [...]
Goldsmith defends global settlement in BAE inquiry February 7, 2010 FORMER attorney general Lord Goldsmith this weekend defended the plea deal struck by arms manufacturer BAE Systems to settle inquiries into its dealings by the UK and US authorities. On Friday BAE announced it would admit to two charges and pay fines of $447m (£286m) following probes by the Department of Justice and Serious Fraud [...]
Uncertainty remains despite plea-bargain February 7, 2010 ANTI-weapons campaigners might be up in arms, but BAE investors should be relieved by the $450m (£288m) plea-bargain it has agreed with US and British authorities. Observers had thought the cost of settling the case would be much higher. When the SFO said it would pursue criminal charges back in October, the firm’s stock shed [...]
