Next in at 100 Bishopsgate: Freshfields to leave Fleet Street and cosy up with City firms February 15, 2017 Magic circle law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is upping sticks and leaving its Fleet Street London headquarters to be closer to some of its top City clients. Freshfields has agreed terms with Brookfield Property Partners to move into 100 Bishopsgate from the summer of 2021. The move ends a long association with its iconic headquarters in Whitefriars, [...]
Electronic broker’s boss doesn’t know what is Nex after success of Trump rally February 15, 2017 Trumped-up earnings at Nex, the fancy new name of financial broker of Icap, were not enough to stop its share price from sliding over two per cent this morning. Group revenue was up 11 per cent in the three months to the end of December on a constant currency basis, meaning its nine month performance was [...]
Vodafone’s Indian merger with Idea could net investment banks a tenth of total annual fees in the country February 15, 2017 A raft of major investment banks are circling Vodafone in an attempt to secure bumper returns from advising on the telecoms giant's £10bn Indian merger with Idea Cellular, according to reports. BoAML, UBS and Standard Chartered are understood to be fighting among themselves to secure the mandate, sources told Reuters. And lucrative advisory roles could net them [...]
Softbank buys US fund manager Fortress for $3.3bn in next step of strategic redirection February 15, 2017 Japanese group Softbank has agreed to buy US fund manager Fortress in a deal worth $3.3bn (£2.6bn), as part of the telecom and technology firm's strategic redirection. Announced overnight, the deal is the first by Softbank into an investment fund and follows the an announcement last October by chief executive and founder Masayoshi Son that the group has [...]
French bank Natixis under investigation over disclosures made in 2007 February 15, 2017 French authorities are formally investigating lender Natixis in relation to statements it made in the run-up to the start of the financial crisis. "Natixis announces that it has today been placed under formal investigation in France, in the context of a magistrate led investigation process opened in 2010 relating to two announcements released in the second [...]
AIG’s share price Trump bump halted by worse than expected losses February 15, 2017 Insurance giant AIG reported a worse than expected quarterly loss of $3bn after having to ramp up reserves to cover possible claims against commercial policies it has already written. The group said it had set aside an additional $5.6bn in its fourth quarter trading statement, published overnight. AIG also revealed plans for a $3.5bn share [...]
T-Mobile adds 8m US customers for third year in a row and beats market expectations February 14, 2017 T-Mobile, the third largest mobile phone operator in the US, today beat market expectations with "rock-solid" full-year results. The firm said it had added a total of 2.1m customers in the final three months of the year, taking the total number of new customers to 8.2m in 2016. Read more: Vodafone sells Dutch broadband operations [...]
Pendragon’s boss thinks the others will ultimately agree with his forecasts despite shares falling on full-year figures February 14, 2017 Shares in Pendragon, the UK's largest car dealership, today fell by two per cent – having dropped over five per cent earlier in the day – after the firm revealed its full-year figures. But the FTSE 250 firm's boss steadfastly stuck to his predication that car sales would not fall during 2017. The figures Sales of new cars [...]
BT Openreach’s final board line-up is structurally flawed, says TalkTalk’s Dido Harding February 14, 2017 Openreach today revealed its final board line-up in a push to prove its independence from parent BT, only for the move to be branded "meaningless" by TalkTalk. LIz Benison, a high ranking executive at Serco, will take her place as a non-exec alongside chairman Mike McTighe, Edward Astle and Sir Brendan Barber. Openreach said the appointment means independent [...]
Xafinity wants to take on the big boys with its London IPO February 14, 2017 The £190m float of a mid-tier actuarial and consulting firm will help it break the stranglehold of the largest three market players, its boss said today. Xafinity announced plans earlier this morning for a London listing and intends to make an official admission to the exchange on Thursday. Paul Cuff, the company's co-chief executive, told City A.M. he hopes the [...]
