Inside Track: Behind the scenes of the Pfizer and Astrazeneca talks April 23, 2014 IT WAS ever thus: investment bankers kick off the year talking up a economic environment ripe for throwing up industry-defining mergers and acquisitions. By Easter, they’re conjuring up myriad reasons why said deluge of deals has failed to materialise. To date, 2014 has done little to disabuse that idea. There are exceptions, of course, one [...]
Drab US factory and housing numbers hit recovery hopes April 23, 2014 LACKLUSTRE economic figures weighed on investor sentiment across the pond yesterday, with manufacturing and housing data coming out worse than expected. The US factory sector kept growing this month, according to Markit’s initial flash estimate. Yet the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) score of 55.4, down from 55.5 in March, disappointed economists who had expected a [...]
Best of the Brokers for 24 April 2014 April 23, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com PREMIER FOODS Jefferies has restarted coverage on the food maker with a “buy” rating and 90p target. The broker thinks fears of a grocery price war are overdone and believes the company can weather the pressure to deliver on its 2014 forecasts. THOMAS [...]
How Barclays could fire 7,000 investment bankers April 23, 2014 Barclays is shaking up its investment bank next month, and analysts at Bernstein expect around 7,400 staff to lose their jobs. It might sound like a stark turnaround for the bank – earlier this year chief exec Antony Jenkins increased bonuses for investment bankers because staff were jumping ship to higher-paying banks, particularly in the [...]
The deficit is falling, but Plan A is long dead April 23, 2014 Public finance figures have just been released by the Office for National Statistics, showing the progress made on the Treasury’s deficit reduction programme. It’s good news, with borrowing hitting pretty much the level expected during this year’s budget, and coming in below last year’s forecast. But how does it look when compared to [...]
Vince Cable is fighting yesterday’s battles on boardroom pay April 22, 2014 THE VINCE Cable show is back on the road. The business secretary is up to his old tricks again, waging war on business. He writes in a letter to FTSE bosses that “excessive and disproportionate pay damages popular trust in business” and that it “undermines business’ licence to operate”. It’s a shame he didn’t make [...]
Minister warns top firms over remuneration April 22, 2014 BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable has penned a warning letter to the renumeration committees of all FTSE 100 companies, telling them to bring pay in line with performance or risk even tougher rules. Explaining his decision to write to the companies, Cable warned of public resentment surrounding large payouts, adding that he wants to see firm [...]
Barclays stops trading in most commodities April 22, 2014 BARCLAYS is shutting down most of its commodities trading business after new regulations made it harder to make money in the sector, the bank said yesterday. It will no longer trade base metals, agricultural products or most energy commodities. But the bank will continue to trade precious metals, as well as index products and some [...]
City Moves for 23 April 2014 | Who’s switching jobs April 22, 2014 HSBC Private Bank Oliver Gregson has been appointed head of private bank investment group, UK and Channel Islands, at HSBC Private Bank. He joins from Barclays Wealth, where he was head of discretionary portfolio management. Gregson has also held roles at UBS and Citi Private Bank. State Street Global Advisors The asset management firm has [...]
Barclays gets ready for major investment banking shake up April 22, 2014 BARCLAYS is expected to cut back its commodities trading business in reforms to be announced today, ahead of a bigger investment banking shakeup. The reforms have been prompted by tougher regulations driving up the cost of doing business in the markets. The changes should also please protestors ahead of this Thursday’s annual general meeting – [...]