Two financial heads certainly better than one May 5, 2014 EVERYBODY loves a good double act; Beyonce and Jay Z, Ant and Dec, Batman and Robin and er, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. The latter had their moment in the spotlight this weekend with the annual Buffettpalooza, (read as: the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting) for which almost 40,000 people packed into an auditorium in Omaha. [...]
The man with a plan for your retirement May 5, 2014 The former Barclays banker turned insurance group chief executive thinks he’s found a new direction for LV= WHEN Mike Rogers first heard about chancellor George Osborne’s plans to scrap compulsory annuities, the LV= chief executive was on a train back to London. “I’d been to Bristol for lunch with some of the top performers from [...]
Mothercare back at the table with its lenders over debt pile May 5, 2014 MOTHERCARE is in talks with its lenders to renegotiate the terms of its banking covenants just seven months after securing a £90m refinancing deal. The mother and baby products retailer has asked its banks HSBC and Barclays for more headroom to help it invest in opening new stores as it seeks to turn around its [...]
Best of the Brokers for 06 May 2014 May 5, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com BRITVIC Barclays has cut the drinks maker from “overweight” to “equalweight”, after a strong share price rise over the past year. The broker remains confident in Britvic’s management and its credentials as a safe haven investment, but sees the stock as well-priced with [...]
London Report: Supermarkets’ results to show split in fortunes May 5, 2014 THE varying fortunes of the UK’s supermarkets will be revealed this week as Morrisons gives its quarterly results while Sainsbury’s announces full-year figures. Sainsbury’s annual results are forecast to show that underlying pre-tax profits rose 3.5 per cent to £782m. However investors will be anxious to see the company’s plans for the next year, especially [...]
What you need to know before the open May 2, 2014 A mixed open's expected for European markets today, as investors come back from the May Day holiday and start digesting some of the key data from yesterday, along with what's out today. European manufacturing data is predicted to show improvements for Italy, Spain and Germany, but numbers for France may well confirm the slide seen [...]
Barclays loses head of Asia-Pacific business May 2, 2014 Barclays has said Robert Morrice, its Asian Pacific chairman and chief executive (CEO), is retiring after 17 years in the role. Andrew Jones and Eiji Nakai will step into the breach as co-CEOs, the bank said today. Jones is currently chief operating officer for Asia Pacific, while Nakai is chief executive of Barclays Japan business. [...]
Barclays’ Canary Wharf offices rocked by morning bomb scare May 1, 2014 STAFF at banks including Barclays and HSBC were briefly shut in their offices yesterday morning as a suspicious package was investigated in Canary Wharf. An area including the Waitrose supermarket was closed off by police at around 9am when police were called to Barclays’ headquarters, near Churchill Place. Officers sent in a robot to study [...]
Desmond’s Channel 5 sold to US media group Viacom for £450m May 1, 2014 RICHARD Desmond has agreed to sell Channel 5 to media group Viacom for £450m in a deal that will see the US broadcaster expand its worldwide footprint. The deal, which was signed on Tuesday and announced yesterday, sees Desmond’s holding company Northern & Shell receive a return of more than four times the £103.5m investment [...]
Best of the Brokers for 02 May 2014 May 1, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com BARCLAYS UBS has upgraded the bank from “neutral” to “buy”, upping its target price from 280p to 305p. Following reports that Barclays is setting up a bad bank, the broker believes Barclays’ management is showing willingness to shift away from loss-making parts of [...]