Just Eat shares tumble as investors sell large stake December 3, 2014 TAKEAWAY website Just Eat’s shares dived yesterday after investors sold a 7.7 per cent stake in the business, which floated this year. Its stock has climbed since the initial public offering, rising from 260p on their launch in April to a peak of 350p a week ago. But yesterday it tumbled 9.49 per cent to 307p. [...]
Brewin’s profit slashed by IT upgrade fail December 3, 2014 WEALTH manager Brewin Dolphin’s pre-tax profits dived by 70 per cent in the past year, the firm reported yesterday. A £12.1m IT project writedown contributed to the poor figures – pre-tax profits came in at £8.6m, down from £28.4m in the previous 12-month period. It had planned to roll out a new software system to [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: Chancellor bids to get banks to pay tax quickly December 3, 2014 Britain's biggest banks will have to pay their taxes more quickly under new accounting rules brought in by the chancellor yesterday, bringing in an extra £3.5bn over the next four years. Lenders which made huge losses in the financial crisis are still offsetting current profits against those costs. The chancellor said he does not [...]
Cheap mortgages are here to stay as OBR predicts interest rates will remain low December 3, 2014 Interest rates will stay lower for longer, the fiscal watchdog predicted yesterday, because the Bank of England is now not expected to tighten monetary policy until well into 2015. When it last made its forecasts in March, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted the average mortgage interest rate would dip below three per cent [...]
Libor fines to be spent on air ambulances and forces charities December 3, 2014 Hundreds of millions of pounds in Libor fines will go to air ambulances, Gurkha and veterans’ hearing charities, the chancellor said yesterday. Banks paid the fines after their traders were accused of trying to manipulate key interbank interest rate Libor. The pledge comes after Osborne announced the fines for foreign exchange benchmark manipulation would be spent [...]
Exclusive: VTB Capital to sue ex-chief Atanas Bostandjiev for setting up rival Gemcorp December 2, 2014 Investment firm VTB Capital is suing its former international chief executive, City A.M. understands, claiming he broke the terms of his contract by setting up a rival within weeks of leaving his job. Ex-Goldman Sachs partner Atanas Bostandjiev headed up VTB Capital’s global operations for more than three years, before leaving the executive position in July [...]
Stan Chart on adviser hunt December 2, 2014 STANDARD Chartered is considering scrapping UBS or JP Morgan as its corporate brokers, as it reviews its representatives in the marketplace. Brokers offer advice to firms and keep them in contact with investors. “We can confirm we’re conducting a review of our corporate broking relationships,” said a spokesperson at Standard Chartered. “The review will include our [...]
Europe set for flurry of bank M&A when rules settle down December 2, 2014 BANKS are preparing for a wave of mergers and acquisitions as Europe’s new more co-ordinated regulation makes it easier to do business across borders, analysts at Scope Ratings said yesterday. Few Eurozone banks have snapped up rivals in recent years, preferring to bolster their own positions and work to match ever-changing regulations. But now the [...]
Watchdog: Fixing bank culture is like the drink driving campaign December 2, 2014 Banking culture has barely changed so far, despite the billions of pounds of fines imposed on lenders, the City watchdog’s enforcement boss said yesterday. Instead of expecting quick results, Tracey McDermott compared the challenge to the generation-long effort to stop drink driving. “We are still some way short of the corner that needs to be turned,” [...]
FinnCap profits jump on boom in flotations and fundraisings December 2, 2014 BROKER FinnCap almost doubled its capital-raising in the past six months, the firm reported yesterday. The boom in flotations helped the mid-market specialist to raise £135m for clients, up from £75m in the same period of 2013. Revenues climbed 23 per cent to £8.5m, and pre-tax profits jumped 30 per cent to £1.3m. FinnCap’s work [...]