European banks face $28bn blow January 8, 2014 EUROPE’S biggest investment banks face more years of misery, a top analyst warned yesterday, with any return to normality in 2014 dashed as fines and legal bills of more than $28bn (£17bn) outpace planned cuts for years to come. The biggest six investment banks in Europe plan to shake up their businesses to cut out [...]
Lombard Medical says farewell to City as it heads for Nasdaq January 8, 2014 LOMBARD Medical Technologies, a Didcot-based medical device company focused on the treatment of aneurysms, yesterday announced its intention to seek a share listing in New York on the Nasdaq exchange. The company, whose shares rose nearly six per cent yesterday on the AIM market on the news, has hired Jefferies and Barclays Capital to advise [...]
M&S investor piles pressure for cash return January 7, 2014 MARKS & Spencer shareholders are putting pressure on the high street retailer to buy shares or increase its dividend, as the City braces itself for a gloomy trading update tomorrow. One top 20 investor told City A.M. “There is some pressure on management somewhat given that we are at the end of the turnaround strategy [...]
Barclays beefs up its board with appointment of former regulator January 7, 2014 BARCLAYS yesterday bulked up its board, hiring former Federal Reserve and Financial Services Authority regulator Stephen Thieke. He joined immediately as a non-executive director. Barclays has been keen to increase its knowledge and skills in regulation and compliance, a drive which included hiring ex-FSA chief executive Sir Hector Sants as compliance boss last year. However, Sants [...]
London Report: Investors take punt on banks to drive FTSE up January 7, 2014 THE UK’S blue chip share index rose to a one-week high yesterday, with gains in financial stocks pushing the FTSE 100 towards major technical resistance levels. Lloyds rallied three per cent, as investors bought the stock on expectations that the bank will start paying dividends this year and that it will benefit from a recovering [...]
RBS and Lloyds crack down on traders’ chats December 19, 2013 TRADERS have been banned from joining group chats with staff at other finance firms as Lloyds and RBS crack down on the practices which helped the Libor and other market-fiddling scandals develop, the banks said yesterday. RBS has been fined for attempted Libor fiddling, earlier this year paying a total of £390m to settle cases [...]
Christmas spending set to be modestly higher than last year December 19, 2013 CHRISTMAS spending this year is forecast to rise to nearly £50bn, increasing by just more than inflation from last year’s level. Barclays reveal today that they believe spending will rise to £47bn over Christmas, an increase of 2.8 per cent on last year. Previous research from the bank has suggested that online sales will dominate [...]
Are the boom times back as competition heats up for top traders? December 19, 2013 European investment banks are set to increase the hiring of stock traders in 2014 on the back of a rallying stock market and stable Eurozone, according to the head of Barclays European equities. Jonathan Beebe said in an interview: Most of the restructuring in equities has happened. Revenue growth this year is around 10 percent [...]
City’s Christmas parties have lost their sparkle December 18, 2013 NO ONE could deny Christmas is in full swing – drunken revellers are falling out of pubs in festive onesies, the Tube has a whiff of Baileys, and Boots has all but sold out of Alka-Seltzer. But for the City, Christmas isn’t the same as it used to be – extravagance is outlawed and the parties, [...]
Best of the Brokers for 19 December 2013 December 18, 2013 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com MERLIN ENTERTAINMENTS Barclays has initiated coverage of the entertainment company with an “overweight’ rating and a 390p price target. Past growth secured by strong brands in an expanding segment convinced the analysts that the company could deliver long-lasting results. PETROPAVLOVSK Cannacord Genuity reiterates [...]