Salford-based Luxfer lists its shares in NY October 3, 2012 LUXFER Holdings, a speciality materials group, saw its shares rise on their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, reaching 17 per cent above the offer price by mid-afternoon. The group is being brought to the US market by Jefferies, which recently led the successful flotation of Manchester United in the [...]
FTSE 100 down on poor Chinese data October 3, 2012 The leading share index slipped back under the 5,800 mark this morning, as weak Chinese services sector data weighed on investor sentiment. Mining stocks were hit, as the poor outlook from Asia raised concerns about raw demand. Leading the fallers in early trade was Lamprell, down more than 32 per cent, as it issued its [...]
Barclays promotions signify cultural shift towards retail October 2, 2012 BARCLAYS yesterday gave two top executives from the retail end of its business seats on its executive committee, as new boss Antony Jenkins realigns the bank’s management toward high street banking. Valerie Soranno Keating, chief executive of Barclaycard, and Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of UK retail and business banking, will report directly to group chief [...]
Financial firms fall out of top brands October 2, 2012 BARCLAYS, Zurich and UBS have dropped out of a list of the world’s top 100 brands, making way for a slew of tech and luxury firms – as well as a well-known nappy maker. “Recent events, such as the notorious Libor scandal, have tarnished the reputation of leading brands,” said Interbrand, which compiled the 13th [...]
EU review wants to ringfence investment banking October 2, 2012 EU advisers have recommended that banks should separate deposit taking activities from trading and other riskier operations in a report released today. Proprietary trading of securities and derivatives should be legally separated from retail banking with the objective of reducing “systemic risk” in banking activities, it said. The advisory group led by Bank of Finland [...]
FTSE 100 weak on Eurozone concerns October 2, 2012 The FTSE 100 opened down this morning, losing yesterday’s strong gains, as concerns over the health of the European economy and whether Spain might apply for financial help weighed on sentiment. A mixed bag made up the loserboard. Property group LSL Property led the fallers, shedding 4.61 per cent in early deals. Intellectual property firm [...]
Mass upgrade as banks’ cost of equity drops October 1, 2012 BRITISH banks have built up capital levels and cut down leverage more successfully than their European rivals, and should soon reap the benefits in a lower cost of equity, Liberum Capital forecast yesterday. And if the Eurozone stabilises further, risks to the industry outlook will fade and banks will be in an even stronger position, [...]
Who’s switching jobs October 1, 2012 Barclays Jim Murphy has been appointed director of financial institutions trade in Barclays’s trade and working capital team. He joins from HSBC, where he was a director in its project and export finance team. Murphy has also worked at Deutsche Bank. BlackRock James Wilkinson has been appointed European chief investment officer for BlackRock’s global real [...]
Not all doom and gloom for UK banks October 1, 2012 WE ARE now more than four years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and it is longer still since the taxpayer bailed out Northern Rock. In that time, there has been little good news for financials and for the UK banking sector specifically. Reinforced by Moody’s decision to maintain its negative outlook on the [...]
FTSE 100 firmly up on Glenstrata deal October 1, 2012 Banks and miners led the blue chip index up in early trading, as the £56bn mining mega-merger of Xstrata and Glencore stole the headlines. Better-than-expected results from the Spanish bank stress tests boosted UK financial shares. Barclays was up 2.89 per cent in early trading, followed by RBS, which added 2.06 per cent. HSBC was [...]