Mobile shoppers boost demand at Shop Direct January 13, 2014 SHOP Direct said sales from smartphone and tablets “exploded” over Christmas, boosting the group’s efforts to shift away from its roots as a traditional catalogue business. The online and catalogue retailer, which owns brands such as Very.co.uk, Littlewoods.com and isme.com, said total sales rose five per cent in the six weeks to 27 December compared [...]
Best of the Brokers for 14 January 2014 January 13, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com BAE SYSTEMS UBS analysts are upbeat on BAE, highlighting it as their favourite pick from the European aerospace and defence sector. They have a “buy” rating on the stock and hiked their target price from 475p to 510p, citing a likely Saudi price [...]
London Report: Banks lift FTSE as new leverage rules welcomed January 13, 2014 ARALLY in banking shares helped the FTSE 100 rise to a two-month closing high yesterday as investors welcomed the prospect of lighter rules on leverage for the sector. Supermarket WM Morrison was the top FTSE gainer on speculation it may sell some property and return some of the proceeds to shareholders, while oil and gas [...]
Banks cut hours for junior staff January 12, 2014 A NUMBER of City banks are examining plans to cut the hours worked by interns and junior staff in their investment banking units, City A.M understands, following criticism some are working dangerously hard. After months of intense scrutiny of the industry’s practices, Barclays is thought to be considering increasing the number of junior staff it [...]
BlackRock backs Bolton against Italian civil suit January 12, 2014 BLACKROCK said it has conducted a full internal investigation and found no evidence to support allegations that fund manager Nigel Bolton is guilty of insider trading. It emerged on Friday that Consob, the Italian securities regulator, had launched civil proceedings against Bolton, a portfolio manager and head of BlackRock Investment Management’s European equity team, accusing [...]
Banks pay further £77m to small businesses for swaps mis-selling January 10, 2014 According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK's four largest banks have upped the pace of payouts to small businesses mis-sold interest rate hedging products. 1,040 firms had been paid a total of £158.6m in compensation from Lloyds, RBS, Barclays and HSBC by the end of December. In November a total of £81.2m was [...]
Serco awarded extension to run Boris Bikes January 9, 2014 SERCO, the beleaguered outsourcing firm under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), yesterday said it has won a £38m two-year contract extension with Transport for London (TfL) to manage and operate the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme. The original contract to design, build and operate the service – commonly known as Boris Bikes, named after [...]
City Moves for 10 January 2014 | Who’s switching jobs January 9, 2014 Grant ThorntonThe business advisory firm has announced the appointment of Richard Milnes as a partner in its financial services tax team. He joins from EY, and has previously worked in international tax for Shell and as head of tax planning at Lloyds. CouttsThe bank has recruited Matthew Spencer as executive director and head of intermediaries [...]
Best of the Brokers for 10 January 2014 January 9, 2014 WILLIAM HILL Barclays has cut William Hill from overweight to equalweight with a lower target of 420p. The broker thinks gambling firms will be hit by calls to crack down on gaming machines, but notes that William Hill makes 26 per cent of its earnings this way, compared to 43 per cent at Ladbrokes. TULLOW [...]
London Report: William Hill and retailers weigh the FTSE down January 9, 2014 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 fell yesterday and underperformed shares in southern Europe, as a rise in the pound against the euro hampered prospects for the index’s exporters and most retailers fell after weak Christmas updates. The FTSE erased gains in the afternoon as the pound rose to its highest in a year against the euro on [...]