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 [...]
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 [...]