Lawyers eye IPO market to raise funds April 20, 2011 A SWATHE of City law firms are said to be considering plans to list on the stock market, ahead of sweeping changes to the way they are funded due later this year. Personal injury specialist Irwin Mitchell fired the starting gun yesterday, after it revealed it had hired investment bank Espirito Santo to advise it [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS April 20, 2011 BURGLARS TO CASH IN ON WEDDING While the UK celebrates the royal wedding, AXA, the home insurers, predict a potentially huge surge in burglaries and accidental damage insurance claims. AXA’s research predicts that over four in ten of us will be away from our homes for the royal wedding while a further 21 per cent [...]
Tesco wages war on British banks April 19, 2011 TESCO’S new chief executive yesterday set the retail giant on course for a showdown with Britain’s banks, as he made growing his financial services unit one of his top priorities. Philip Clarke, who replaced Sir Terry Leahy at the helm of Britain’s top supermarket last month, said Tesco’s bank would become a “big part” of [...]
How Tesco could shake up banking April 19, 2011 THERE is a simple way to increase competition in banking: unleash the supermarkets. Only they have the firepower, brand and distribution to grab a meaningful market share in basic retail financial services quickly. So it was heartening to hear from Phil Clarke, Tesco’s promising new boss, that boosting his banking offering is one of his [...]
Co-operative campaign sustaining momentum April 19, 2011 TWO months ago we looked at the impact of The Co-operative’s “good food within easy reach” advertising campaign that launched at the start of the year. We saw that it had had the effect of increasing perception scores for The Co-operative, taking it, almost overnight, from being below the average for the supermarket sector and [...]
Tesco profit up but UK hit by dip in sales April 19, 2011 TESCO chief executive Philip Clarke yesterday issued a six-point mission statement aimed at putting the retailer back on track after disappointing results. UK like-for-like sales excluding fuel in the fourth-quarter saw a 0.7 per cent year-on-year drop as consumers reined in their spending. Clarke, who took over from Sir Terry Leahy last month, said the [...]
New man is from the Leahy mould April 19, 2011 THE son of a Tesco store manager in the Wirral, Philip Clarke has moved into the hot seat 36 years after he did his first shelf-stacking shift for the supermarket as a schoolboy. Like his predecessor Sir Terry Leahy, who also grew up in Liverpool, he has been one of the backbones of the company [...]
FTSE shares rebound but debt worries still dog bank stocks April 19, 2011 STRENGTH in oversold commodity issues fuelled a modest rally by Britain’s top share index yesterday, while sovereign debt worries continued to dog banking stocks. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was up 26.79 points, or 0.5 per cent at 5,896.87, having dropped 2 per cent on Monday to hit its lowest level since March [...]
Tesco profit up thanks to Asian markets April 19, 2011 Tesco said it would step up innovation in a bid to improve its performance in a tough UK market, as it met forecasts with a rise in annual profit driven by Asian markets. New chief executive Phil Clarke, who took over from Terry Leahy last month, said on he was setting six objectives for the [...]
FTSE to break through 6,000 on M&A rumours April 17, 2011 ALTHOUGH clearly nervous around the psychologically significant 6,000 barrier, London’s blue chip index looks set to build on Friday’s gains, with defensive stocks providing the momentum. In 24-hour trading, GFT is forecasting the UK index to open up 20 points from last week’s close, at around 6,016. The German DAX is quoted to open up [...]