Sainsbury’s counts the cost of supermarket price war November 8, 2015 Sainsbury's is expected to unveil a near 25 per cent slide in first half underlying profits on Wednesday, as efforts to compete with rivals and stay ahead in the supermarket price war hurt margins. Analysts at Barclays expect margins to fall by 60 basis points to 2.5 per cent and underlying profit before tax to decline by [...]
City Moves for 09 November 2015 | Who’s switching jobs November 8, 2015 RSM The audit, tax, and consulting services firm has announced the appointments of Pelle Langli and Mark Wootton (pictured) as partners in its consulting practice. Langli joins from EC Partners. He has more than 15 years' experience in consulting, and will focus on building RSM's finance function advisory service line. Wootton joins from KM&T UK, [...]
Bill Gross says a December rate rise is “100 per cent” likely, after US jobs data exceed all predictions – here’s what other analysts think, too November 6, 2015 "Bond king" Bill Gross thinks a US December rate rise has just become practically certain, after US jobs data beat everyone's predictions. In October, the US added 271,000 jobs to its economy, way ahead of the 180,000 predicted and the highest monthly figure for the year so far. Meanwhile, unemployment fell to five per cent, from [...]
High street retailer confidence rises ahead of Christmas November 5, 2015 High street retailers are feeling more confident about Christmas this year, with the majority predicting a rise in revenues according to research from Barclays, despite warnings from retailers including SuperGroup and Marks & Spencer of challenges ahead. Barclays said 79 per cent of retailers surveyed expect revenues to increase over the Christmas period compared to [...]
Barclays share price picks up on the news new chief executive Jes Staley has bought 2.8 million shares November 5, 2015 Barclays' new chief executive, Jes Staley, has spent £6.5m buying shares in the lender. The former JP Morgan investment banker bought 2,790,000 ordinary shares for 233p each, the lowest price the shares have traded at since January. Shares dropped as low as 229.3p this morning but have now picked up, hovering around 231p, down 0.1 per cent. Last [...]
What’s in a name? Barclays has a knack for nomenclature November 5, 2015 There’s been a reshuffle on the boards of private wealth management consultancies this week. Head of strategy at RBC George King IV (not to be confused with British monarch King George IV) has moved to MASECO as a director. This particular King comes with some major financial credentials – he’s done stints at Barclays, Credit [...]
City Moves for 5 November 2015 | Who’s switching jobs November 4, 2015 RIDGEWAY PARTNERS The executive search firm has appointed Toby Crosthwaite as a partner. He joins from Russell Reynolds Associates, based in Singapore and London, where he worked on appointments in the insurance sector. In his new role, Crosthwaite will cover work in life insurance, general insurance, and reinsurance. RUSSELL INVESTMENTS Sarah Leslie has been appointed [...]
What can Quaker capitalism teach business today? It’s no good being ethical if you don’t make money November 3, 2015 Today, the Friends House on the Euston Road is hosting a Quaker Business Conference on the subject of “what is the purpose of business?” It is the right time to be posing the question and a good location at which to be asking it. The Quakers led the way in some of the [...]
At the close: FTSE 100 marginally up despite slides from housebuilders and Standard Chartered November 3, 2015 The FTSE 100 closed marginally up on Tuesday after energy stocks rallied to counter to slides in housebuilders' stocks and Standard Chartered's share price. The FTSE 100 ended the session 0.2 per cent up at 6,374. Housebuilders were hit after being downgraded by Liberum, a broker, to "sell" saying the largest housebuilders' valuations were "too optimistic". Barratt [...]