Galleon sinks as Rajaratnam shuts up shop October 21, 2009 GALLEON Group, the $3.7bn (£2.2bn) hedge fund firm, is liquidating its funds after its billionaire founder Raj Rajaratnam was charged last week with running one of the biggest insider-trading schemes in history. Rajaratnam, who is on $100m bail after being arrested last week, said he is considering a sale of the firm to a rival [...]
INSURER’S RUGBY DEAL KICKS OFF October 21, 2009 AGIANT rugby ball installation on Lime Street surprised City workers turning up for work yesterday. Unveiled to mark the arrival of a new Guinness Premiership sponsor, the four-metre high ball celebrates business insurer QBE’s involvement in the sport. The deal, which begins immediately, runs to the end of July 2012 and will see QBE’s logo [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 21, 2009 HeartwoodThe wealth manager has appointed Kirsty MacArthur as a relationship director for new clients, a role based in London. MacArthur joins from UBS, where she was responsible for advising ultra high net worth clients across the sport, media and private equity sectors. Prior to that, she worked at Coutts & Co, where she was an [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU SEE ANY EVIDENCE THAT THE RECESSION IS OVER? October 21, 2009 ROB DUTSON OEE CONSULTING“I do think we are coming to the end of the recession. The consultancy market is increasing, the housing market is improving and general spending seems to be going up. These things together tell me things are getting better. That and high hopes!” MARK MYERS ICAP ELECTRONIC BROKING“I think there are some [...]
CBI: Manufacturing firms see an export-led recovery in output October 21, 2009 FOLLOWING months of gloom, prospects for the manufacturing sector appear to be looking brighter and the decline in output has eased considerably, the Confederation for Business Industry (CBI) said yesterday. The latest quarterly Industrial Trends survey showed that sterling weakness is helping firms’ competitiveness on the global stage. Manufacturers’ sentiment about export prospects rose to [...]
House sales up, says taxman October 21, 2009 HOUSE sales in the UK lifted over the summer despite the downturn, according to figures released yesterday by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Sales of residential properties costing more than £40,000 rose from 80,000 in August to 82,000 in September. And sales in the three months to the end of September were 11 per cent [...]
King remarks propel pound October 21, 2009 STERLING surged to one-month highs against both the US dollar and the euro yesterday as traders saw an extension of quantitative easing (QE) as less likely following the publication of the Bank of England minutes. The pound hit $1.6636 and the euro slid more than 1.2 per cent on the day to 89.98p, as a [...]
Federal Reserve’s Beige Book reports small improvements October 21, 2009 US economic conditions stabilised or improved modestly in most parts of the country, according to a Federal Reserve report yesterday that suggested the economy was slowly clawing out of a recession. In its “Beige Book” of anecdotal reports on the economy, which was based on information collected before 13 October, the central bank noted improvement [...]
Sweden could ditch hedgie leverage caps October 21, 2009 Sweden, holder of the European Union presidency, wants to ditch a proposed borrowing limit for hedge funds in a move that will please Britain but anger France and others seeking tougher control of the secretive industry. Although hedge funds did not play a central role in the financial crisis, politicians remain suspicious of their activity, [...]
Goldman boss speaks up for bonus culture October 21, 2009 LORD Griffiths, the vice-chairman of investment bank Goldman Sachs, has put his head over the parapet after claiming the public should tolerate bumper City bonuses for the good of the UK economy. Griffiths, a former special adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said he was not “ashamed” of the generous reward policy at Goldman, which last week [...]
