Who’s switching jobs October 25, 2012 McCarthy & Stone The construction firm has appointed Mark Elliott as its new chief executive. He previously worked for Arena Leisure, the hotel and race course operator, where he oversaw its merger with Northern Racing in March 2012. Elliott was also formerly chief executive of Wembley. Otkritie The Russian financial services firm has appointed Ruben [...]
FTSE 100 up as Britain leaves recession October 25, 2012 The blue chip index was up in early trading, as the economy expanded by one per cent in the three months to September, the strongest quarterly growth in five years. Companies announcing results also helped to buoy the FTSE 100, such as consumer giant Unilever, which added 3.36 per cent as it announced rising sales. [...]
What the other papers say this morning October 24, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Walker plans Barclays clear-out Sir David Walker is planning a clean sweep of Barclays’ board after he formally becomes chairman of the scandal-tainted bank next week and will also oversee the replacement of some executive positions. The City grandee has been sounding out top figures over their suitability to join the bank in [...]
Barclays defends itself in key interest swap misselling suit October 24, 2012 BARCLAYS was yesterday gearing up to face down interest rate mis-selling claims, with the Guardian Care Homes (GCH) suit set to come before a judge on Monday. The pre-trial hearing will see GCH present its accusations at the Commercial Court, while Barclays will defend itself. The judge will then decide which, if any, of the claims [...]
What did you make of punch taverns’ performance? October 24, 2012 SIMON FRENCH | PANMURE GORDON With Ebitda below our expectations and debt higher than we forecast, our confidence in a positive outcome for shareholders continues to diminish. As such we reduce our target price to 7p, reflecting the group’s balance sheet value of its investment in Matthew Clark of £44.5m. Hold. JAMES MARTIN | BARCLAYS [...]
Student housing attracts £2bn worth of investment says CBRE October 24, 2012 INVESTMENT in student accommodation in the UK has soared to a record £2bn since the start of the year, despite the sector seeing a decline in student numbers following the hike in tuition fees. New research from property consultants CBRE published yesterday showed that investment into student accommodation jumped 145 per cent in the first [...]
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 [...]