Tesco Bank up to 7m accounts February 17, 2014 THE CHALLENGER bank run by grocer Tesco has opened 7m accounts for customers, across its whole range of products including insurance, savings and credit cards, it revealed today. The landmark figure covers just over 5m customers, as some have more than one product with the retailer-based bank. The figures put it ahead of other large [...]
Comcast in $45bn swoop for Time Warner Cable February 13, 2014 US TV giant Comcast yesterday agreed to buy smaller rival Time Warner Cable (TWC) for $45.2bn (£27.1bn), the biggest M&A deal of the year so far. The agreement, which still needs to be approved by regulators and shareholders, will create America’s largest cable and broadband provider, with combined revenues of $87bn and a market cap [...]
Lloyds shares tumble despite return to profit February 13, 2014 LLOYDS declared a profit for 2013 yesterday, indicating the five-year struggle to turn the bank around is complete. The bank is now ready to return fully to the private sector, and wants to start paying dividends from the second half of this year. However, shares fell as Lloyds revealed further provisions to pay for legal [...]
Inside Track: Rothschild shows independent advisers are on a roll February 13, 2014 AT THE top of Rothschild’s impressive and relatively newly-built London headquarters, a modern building set in the 17th century St Swithin’s Lane in the heart of the City, is an auditorium which the firm’s bankers use to host what are known as kick-off meetings for the flotations they’re working on. Over the past few months, [...]
Forecasters slash estimates for inflation levels in the Eurozone February 13, 2014 PRIVATE forecasters have slashed their estimates for inflation in the Eurozone this year and next, according to the European Central Bank (ECB). The central bank’s survey of outside projections has become significantly more conservative this quarter, with a 1.1 per cent increase in prices expected this year, and 1.4 per cent next year. At the end [...]
Amec rises on Foster Wheeler bid February 13, 2014 ENGINEERING firm Amec plans to issue $800m (£481m) notes this year to part-finance its acquisition of Foster Wheeler, as it said yesterday that it had made a definitive $3.3bn offer for its US rival. The FTSE 100-quoted company could still be usurped by a rival bid, but chief financial officer Ian McHoul told City A.M. [...]
Is Europe turning Japanese? Barclays really thinks it could be February 13, 2014 Is the Eurozone falling into a deflationary spiral? Two more bleak pieces of research earlier suggest that at best, Europe’s inflation outlook is failing to improve, and at worst, it may face a “Japan-style deflation cycle”. The European Central Bank’s monthly bulletin’s survey of forecasters suggests disinflation is still going on – they project 1.1 [...]
Cameron pledges £5,000 for UK homeowners hit by flood damage February 12, 2014 DAVID Cameron said yesterday he would make £5,000 available to every home and business hit by flooding, as gale-force winds disrupted trains, closed roads and cut power to vast swathes of the country. The Prime Minister reiterated his pledge to spend whatever it takes to help get communities back on their feet after heavy rain [...]
Inside Track: Jenkins should settle Barclays’ £50m fine so he can move on February 12, 2014 RAISE £6bn from investors and hand more than half of it back to employees and investors six months later: as a formula for managing a corporate balance sheet, there’s a certain novelty in Barclays’ approach. But for someone who has choreographed efforts to rehabilitate a company’s image as carefully as Antony Jenkins, this has been [...]
City Moves for 13 February 2014 | Who’s switching jobs February 12, 2014 LGP Legal & General Property has announced the appointment of James O’Neill as head of international distribution. He was most recently at Grosvenor Fund Management, where he was director of capital markets. Prior to that, he held business development roles at PwC. KPMG The professional services firm has appointed Jim Grover as a senior adviser in [...]