How Barclays could fire 7,000 investment bankers April 23, 2014 Barclays is shaking up its investment bank next month, and analysts at Bernstein expect around 7,400 staff to lose their jobs. It might sound like a stark turnaround for the bank – earlier this year chief exec Antony Jenkins increased bonuses for investment bankers because staff were jumping ship to higher-paying banks, particularly in the [...]
The government’s green policy will wreak havoc – and not just for Drax April 23, 2014 If the government wants to display a credible case for investment in renewables, then today was a definite step in the wrong direction. The Department of Energy and Climate Change has unveiled a list of eight renewable projects that will be eligible for contracts for difference, its new support framework for green energy generation. Coal-fired [...]
Why Deutsche Bank is going to war with NGOs on wheat April 23, 2014 Gamblers might think they're due a win after a string of losses, but most of us figure that taking a bet on an event doesn't affect its outcome. But some NGOs say the opposite, if your bet is a futures contract, and you're an investor gambling on the value of commodities, like food. The NGO [...]
Bank of England minutes reveal committee divided on economic slack April 23, 2014 The minutes of the Bank of England's most recent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting show no signs of tightening on the horizon. Members of the central bank's interest-rate setting committee voted unanimously to hold policy. With nominal wage growth picking up in recent months, the members determined that a "sustainable rise in real wages and [...]
Why the British love of greeting cards could help this company float on the stock market April 22, 2014 What employs 100,000 people around the country, has sales of £1.6bn and is stocked by one in six retailers around the country? No, not booze, it’s greeting cards. One of the biggest players in the sector, The Card Factory, this morning unveiled plans to float on the stock market. The company has used the British [...]
EU politicians are set to pass their filthiest law yet April 22, 2014 The European Parliament takes one step closer in its efforts to curb the use of plastic carrier bags today. Environment commissioner Janez Potocnik has celebrated parliament voting on a proposal to reduce their use by 80 per cent. Potocnik pointed to the growing consumption of plastic bags as demonstrating "a reckless waste of resources" and [...]
Top stockbroker hits out at “deplorable” lack of retail floats April 22, 2014 One of the biggest names in the retail stockbroking sector has today described the situation facing retail investors wanting to invest in newly-floated companies as "deplorable". Yet another company, The Card Factory, has announced it is coming to market via an issue of shares only initially available to institutional investors. Keith Loudon, the senior partner [...]
Here’s how the City’s top analysts think an AstraZeneca-Pfizer deal could play out April 22, 2014 Fresh talk of a bid by pharma giant Pfizer for UK rival AstraZeneca has seen shares in the target company jump. Investors are getting excited about a potential second move for AstraZeneca, with stock currently up 6.8 per cent on the FTSE 100, at more than 4,030p. That increase dwarfs the FTSE 100's overall rise [...]
Clifford Chance finds no evidence of systemic fraud at RBS April 17, 2014 State-backed bank RBS has today responded to a report by Lawrence Tomlinson, which alleged that the bank's Global Restructuring Group (GRG) was systematically defrauding small business customers. Clifford Chance was appointed to investigate the claims made, and RBS state that the investigation has "concluded that there was no evidence to support this damaging and serious [...]
The S&P500 says the Cuban missile crisis never happened April 17, 2014 What was the scariest period of the Cold War? It's commonly accepted as being the Cuban missile crisis, a standoff in October 1962, and widely thought of as the closest we've come to all out nuclear conflict. Lars Christensen, chief analyst at Danske Bank and a fellow of the Adam Smith Institute, suggests that financial [...]
