Improved Chinese manufacturing doesn’t steady FTSE 100 October 24, 2012 The blue chip index fell beneath 5,800 this morning, despite signs from China that a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy was gathering pace. Energy and engineering firms shouldered the brunt of the losses. Ophir Energy fell 5.68 per cent in early deals, while FTSE 250 oil and gas group Salamander dropped 5.37 per cent. [...]
French industrial confidence drops October 23, 2012 ■ Business morale in France’s manufacturing sector slumped to its lowest level in over two years, fresh figures revealed yesterday. The index, collated by French stats body Insee, dived to 85 on the headline measure, down from 90 last month. “Business leaders consider that the rhythm of activity remains very weak: the balance of opinion [...]
Advisers Nokia’s bond issue October 23, 2012 YACINE AMOR BANK OF AMERICA MERRILL LYNCH YACINE Amor led the team on Nokia’s bond issue at Bank of America Merill Lynch (BofAML), guiding Europe’s second largest convertible bond deal of this year. Amor has 14 years of investment banking experience and is currently head of equity-linked origination for the EMEA region. Prior to joining BofAML [...]
Barclays gets social savvy – on and offline October 23, 2012 AT this week’s Young One World summit in Pittsburgh, Barclays’ new chief executive Antony Jenkins revealed himself to be a Twitter devotee. Jenkins told delegates: “I have a screen in my office that tracks tweets about Barclays. The day after the Libor scandal broke, we had 10,000 tweets and my computer screen was scrolling so [...]
No shortage of literature for banking bookworms this month October 23, 2012 RECENT City A.M. award winner and property giant Westfield welcomed the Prime Minister’s wife to their Shepherd’s Bush store yesterday. Samantha Cameron, ambassador of Save the Children, gave a special reading of The Snail and the Whale at Foyles Bookstore to a group of children from Larmenier & Sacred Heart primary school. But for grown-up [...]
Best of the Brokers October 23, 2012 DIRECT LINE Nomura has begun to cover the newly listed firm with a “reduce” rating and a target price of 174p. Nomura said it was confident in Direct Line, but this was already factored into the price. LLOYDS Ian Gordon at Investec has advised investors to sell the bank’s shares and “seek refuge” in Barclays, claiming [...]
FTSE 100 down while Trinity Mirror tumbles October 23, 2012 The blue chip index was down in early trading today, while Trinity Mirror sustained heavy losses on the FTSE All-Share. The newspaper publishing group lost 11.5 per cent in early trading, after four people filed legal claims accusing the group’s newspapers of hacking phones. Defence equipment firm Chemring fell 7.6 per cent, as it announced [...]
What the other papers say this morning October 22, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES BAE shareholders say chair must go A group of BAE Systems shareholders has demanded the resignation of chairman Dick Olver, saying sweeping changes are needed at the UK defence group following the collapse of its proposed merger with EADS two weeks ago. In a letter to the board, which has been seen by [...]
Permira to be new parent of Ancestry.com October 22, 2012 PRIVATE equity group Permira has splashed out $1.6bn (£1bn) on buying US-listed genealogy website operator Ancestry.com. The firm will take Ancestry private at $32 per share, a 10 per cent premium to Friday’s closing price. Ancestry’s chief executive Tim Sullivan and chief financial officer Howard Hochhauser will keep most of their shares in the firm [...]
Small lenders fear new rules only aid giants October 22, 2012 FINANCIAL regulators are failing to promote competition in the banking sector and perpetuating the “too big to fail” problem, a small bank claimed yesterday, by favouring big lenders under new capital requirements. Paul Lynam, chief executive of Secure Trust Bank, pointed to Sir John Vickers’ proposals allowing a large bank to risk-weight mortgages at five [...]