Top tech boss: London still no Silicon Valley September 23, 2012 LONDON needs to do more to nurture growth in technology firms and become an attractive destination for them to go public, the head of one of the UK’s most successful internet firms said yesterday, warning that the US is a significantly better option for blooming British companies. Michael Acton Smith, chief executive of Mind Candy, [...]
London to ease flotation rules for tech firms September 20, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT yesterday proposed relaxing rules on fast-growing businesses to float on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), in an effort to prevent British technology firms fleeing to America. Science minister David Willetts announced the plans at Google’s innovation hub in London, saying he wanted to reform rules on free float – the proportion of a [...]
Coke bottler mulls London listing plan September 18, 2012 COCA-COLA Hellenic, the Athens based soft drink bottling firm, is exploring plans to ditch its main Greek listing and reactivate its London stock listing, in a move which would shrink the Athens stock exchange volumes by a fifth. The firm last night said it was exploring “all options”, including a listing on the New York [...]
Occupy protesters mark anniversary September 18, 2012 A FEW hundred Occupy Wall Street activists gathered in New York’s financial district yesterday but police kept them well back from the New York Stock Exchange, which they had threatened to surround as part of a day of protests marking the movement’s one-year anniversary. Occupy activists had pledged to disrupt the morning commute in lower [...]
Euphoria of Federal Reserve boost waning as market fatigue creeps in September 16, 2012 COMPARING the Federal Reserve to a rehab clinic offering addicted investors a synthetic high has been a favourite of Wall Street wags ever since the first round of Fed stimulus nearly four years ago. The punch line is that you always need more and more to get the same high and each bout of euphoria [...]
Japan Airlines raises $8.5bn in top Asian float September 10, 2012 JAPAN Airlines, the carrier nationalised by the Japanese government in 2010, yesterday secured top price for its initial public offering, making it the second biggest float of the year after Facebook. The offering, which was six times oversubscribed by investors, was priced at ¥3,790 (£30.24), the upper limit of a range between ¥3,500 and ¥3,790. [...]
CBOE set to open London hub for trading on Vix index futures September 6, 2012 CBOE, which runs the oldest and largest US stock-options exchange, is planning to open a base in London for its fast-growing futures market as it tries to woo more clients from abroad. CBOE Futures Exchange will establish its first non-US hub in a London data centre next year, it said in a statement yesterday. The [...]
US stocks soar to multi-year closing highs September 6, 2012 US stocks closed at multi-year highs yesterday, with the S&P 500 ending at its highest level since before the collapse of Lehman Brothers as investors hailed a new European bond-buying program aimed at stemming the region’s debt crisis. Sentiment was also boosted by stronger-than-expected data on the US services sector and labour market, which was [...]
FedEx outlook stokes bearish US sentiment September 5, 2012 US stocks closed out a second straight session of thin trading yesterday, with investors reluctant to make big bets ahead of a crucial meeting of the European Central Bank, which could announce new policies to help contain the Eurozone’s debt crisis. Media reports that European policymakers would unveil a bond-buying plan to bring down crippling [...]
Santander set to float Mexico arm on NYSE September 4, 2012 SANTANDER yesterday announced plans to float its Mexican banking arm Santander Mexico on the New York Stock Exchange later this month. The initial public offering is expected to raise between €3bn (£2.37bn) and €3.4bn of capital for the company, boosting Santander’s core capital ratio by about half a percentage point under Basel II rules. Shares [...]