The Barclays number three who got the wrong idea about Libor July 3, 2012 BARCLAYS’ newly appointed chief operating officer Jerry del Missier followed his chief executive Bob Diamond and resigned from the bank yesterday in the wake of the interest rate-rigging scandal. Barclays said he will leave with immediate effect. He is thought to be the executive mentioned by the FSA as having misunderstood the Bank of England’s [...]
Rudderless ship turns to Agius in hunt for CEO July 3, 2012 AS BARCLAYS’ top management continued to fall like dominoes yesterday, the bank was forced to turn to outgoing chairman Marcus Agius to lead its hunt for a successor to Bob Diamond. Agius, the first scalp to be claimed as a result of the Libor scandal, announced his intention to leave the bank on Monday morning. [...]
Hit to bank’s reputation is instant and damning July 3, 2012 LAST week the NatWest computer glitch; this week another bank, another crisis and more damage to a brand. The Libor scandal has hit Barclays’ brand hard and fast and while the impact on customers may be less obvious than with NatWest’s difficulties, the trajectory of the crisis on brand perception was very similar. Let’s look [...]
Stelios boosts bid to oust Rake July 3, 2012 SIR Stelios Haji-Ioannou yesterday escalated his efforts to oust Sir Mike Rake as EasyJet chairman by filing papers for an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders. “Everyone can see Mike Rake’s deep conflicts of interest and entrenched positions in the disgraced City establishment,” he claimed, questioning the former Barclays boss’s ability to run a public company [...]
City regulator to review market supervision after Libor scandal July 3, 2012 THE FINANCIAL Services Authority (FSA) is reviewing how wholesale markets are supervised following the interest rate-setting scandal, its chairman Adair Turner said yesterday. “There are no free lunches, and shoddy wholesale practice is not a victimless act, even in those cases where it is not defined as a crime,” Turner told the watchdog’s final annual [...]
HGCapital sells SHL for $660m July 3, 2012 PRIVATE equity group HgCapital has sold employment consultancy SHL to larger rival Corporate Executive Board for $660m (£420.6m), having quadrupled the value of the firm within six years. HgCapital, which bought the firm for £100m in 2006, has sold out from SHL after helping to almost double the firm’s revenues and treble its earnings. HgCapital [...]
Backing Bob backfires badly July 3, 2012 Heaven knows, we’ve all been there before, but imagine Ian Gordon’s reaction at breakfast time yesterday morning as he digested the news that Bob Diamond had resigned. Not 24 hours earlier, Investec analyst Gordon had published a research note entitled: Back Bob! “We urge investors to back Bob, and take full advantage of Barclays’ recent [...]
Eurozone hikes taxes to fill big budget holes July 3, 2012 TAX rises may be on the way in Spain and France, say government ministers, who are under pressure to make budget targets. The French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault yesterday promised a 75 per cent tax band on earnings above €1m, but confirmed that the government would reverse a sales tax increase due to begin in [...]
Rexam cans personal care arm and returns cash to investors July 3, 2012 BRITISH drinks can maker Rexam yesterday said it had agreed to sell its underperforming personal care business in two parts for $709m (£451.9m) in cash and return about £370m of the proceeds to investors. Private equity firm Sun Capital Partners had agreed to buy the cosmetics, toiletries and household care division for $459m, Rexam said, while [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 3, 2012 Mayer Brown Alexandria Carr, the lead legal adviser at HM Treasury on EU financial services strategy, has been appointed by the law firm to its financial services, regulatory and enforcement group in London. She has worked for the UK government for 13 years, the last five of which were spent at the Treasury. Close Brothers [...]