Qatar appoints Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Thani as new chief for sovereign fund December 3, 2014 Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund yesterday appointed a member of the emirate’s royal family to replace its chief executive. The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which manages as much as $300bn (£191bn), including significant stakes in Barclays, Credit Suisse, Sainsbury’s and London department store Harrods, has named Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Thani as CEO. He will [...]
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 [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: Shares in RBS, Lloyds, HSBC and Barclays fall as chancellor outlines profit measures December 3, 2014 Shares in UK banks dropped in early afternoon trading as George Osborne outlined measures to limit the amount of profit lenders can offset by losses. In his Autumn Statement speech, Osborne said he would limit offests to 50 per cent, and delay relief on bad debts, which he added will raise £4bn for the Treasury [...]
Barclays to place ISS shares worth £300m December 2, 2014 Barclays was last night in the market with 13.5 per cent of the stock in ISS, the cleaning and catering group that floated earlier this year in the largest Danish IPO for 20 years. The bank acted on behalf of shareholders to buy the block in a deal worth around £300m and will be placing [...]
Oil giant BG Group backs down over new chief Helge Lund’s pay pack December 1, 2014 Pressure from shareholders has forced oil firm BG Group to revise its remuneration package for incoming chief executive Helge Lund and reduce his share award from £10m to £4.7m. The company stated that a “significant number” of shareholders had questioned the structure of the original proposed pay package, in particular asking whether it was [...]
Kier Group admits to rival takeover talks December 1, 2014 British construction and property firm Kier Group confirmed yesterday that it had held preliminary discussions regarding the possible acquisition of infrastructure compatriot Mouchel. The Bedfordshire-based Kier said in a statement yesterday that it was in early discussions over a bid but that “there can be no certainty that an acquisition of Mouchel will be completed”. [...]
Macquarie replaces Bank of America as Bowleven’s nomad December 1, 2014 BRITISH oil and gas company Bowleven has hired Macquarie Capital as its new nominated adviser (nomad) on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim), following the resignation of Bank of America last week, the company announced yesterday. The Edinburgh-based firm said in a statement that it had appointed Macquarie with immediate effect to act both as its [...]
City Moves for 02 December 2014 | Who’s switching jobs December 1, 2014 Baker Tilly Jim Muir has been appointed head of financial services at the accountancy and business advisory firm. He previously worked at KPMG, and has held board level positions at a range of financial services businesses. Standard Chartered Gwynne Master has been appointed head of financial institutions for Europe in the bank’s corporate and institutional [...]
Barclays unwraps video-link service November 30, 2014 BARCLAYS took a leap into the future yesterday by unveiling the UK’s first known face-to-face video banking service. Barclays Premier account holders will get access to the service on 8 December with other customers having to wait until next year to use the service, which lets them talk to Barclays staff over a video link [...]
FaceTime with your bank? Barclays is venturing into video banking for busy customers in major online move November 30, 2014 Barclays is making another major move into digital with the launch of a video banking service that will let customers speak face to face with advisers instead of visiting a bricks and mortar branch. The bank will offer a round the clock service to better fit in with people’s lives in what it says is [...]