Quercus puts itself up for sale as losses mount January 22, 2014 QUERCUS, the independent publisher behind Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, yesterday unexpectedly announced that it is up for sale. In a surprise stock market announcement, the Baker Street-based firm said that it had appointed mergers and acquisitions specialists Livingstone Partners to advise on the sale process. The firm said it believed it was “in the [...]
Slump in debt trading sends shockwaves across City firms January 20, 2014 BANK shares fell yesterday as fears mounted that global bond trading is facing a prolonged decline, after Deutsche Bank swung to a surprise loss in the final quarter of 2013. The German lender joined Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, who last week reported weak fixed income trading revenues. Deutsche Bank’s shares dived another 5.4 per cent, [...]
Warburg Pincus plants flag in ETF industry after buying stake from investment banks January 20, 2014 US PRIVATE equity giant Warburg Pincus made its first foray into the increasingly competitive world of exchange traded funds (ETF) yesterday by taking a majority stake in fund provider Source. The buyout house, which also owns half of Santander Asset Management, has bought a 51 per cent stake in the ETF business from its five [...]
Best of the Brokers for 21 January 2014 January 20, 2014 AB FOODS UBS has given Associated British Foods a buy rating and lifted its price target to 2,890p, based on a stellar performance from Primark. UBS said the low-priced “fast fashion” chain was being rolled out throughout Europe and its first French store opening was one of its best to date. RENTOKIL Peel Hunt has [...]
London Report: Deutsche’s loss knocks the FTSE and UK banks January 20, 2014 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 stalled near an eight-month high yesterday, held back by weak banking shares as a surprise loss at Germany’s Deutsche Bank was seen as a bad omen for UK lenders’ results. Britain’s main share index, however, was expected to resume its uptrend soon and hit highs not seen since 1999, boosted by a [...]
Barclays ends free banking for most SMEs January 20, 2014 BARCLAYS is moving more than 500,000 business customers onto a new set of accounts over this year, the bank said yesterday, to consolidate its SME (small and medium enterprise) operations. Around 60 per cent will be better off or pay no more than £1.50 per month extra, the bank said. But that leaves 40 per [...]
London Report: Unemployment near threshold for UK rate hike January 19, 2014 UNEMPLOYMENT figures due out this week look set to show further signs of the UK’s recovery, with November’s rate expected to have fallen. Alan Clarke, of ScotiaBank said: “The highlight of the UK economic calendar is going to be the labour report, where we see a very good chance that the unemployment rate falls by [...]
Why this one bank is still cheery after Shell’s profit warning January 17, 2014 Shell dealt something of a blow to investors this morning, as it issued its first profit warning in 10 years. The fourth quarter of 2013 was never going to be a good one for the oil giant, with almost a fifth of its LNG portfolio down for maintenance. Then high exploration and refining costs, fuel [...]
BlackRock’s results benefit from bull run for equity markets January 16, 2014 THE WORLD’S largest money manager BlackRock yesterday reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, benefiting from strong markets and a flow of new money into its exchange-traded funds. The New York-based company said fourth-quarter net income, a measure of profits, rose 24 per cent to $841m (£514.68m) while revenues increased nine per cent to $2.8bn. BlackRock has [...]
Sants joins Church for finance taskforce January 16, 2014 THE CITY’S former top financial regulator Hector Sants, who resigned from Barclays in November citing stress and exhaustion, will lead a new taskforce set up by the head of the Anglican Church. Sants will work with credit unions and the financial sector to support community financial services.