Ex-City professional one step ahead of the cloud March 25, 2012 FROM growing up in the Rossendale valley – the once beating heart of the industrial revolution – Piers Linney is now a man with many strings to his bow: law, accounting, banking, media, finance and entrepreneurship. Now he has his head in cloud computing – a technological revolution with the scalability to turn over billions. [...]
FTSE edges up despite retail fears March 23, 2012 The FTSE 100 bounced back in early trading after falls mainly triggered by miners who are fearful of a slowdown of growth in China. However, gains were minimal with the tough climate for UK retailers being laid bare by data from Nationwide today showing that consumer morale is weakening. Blue chip retailer Kingfisher, which owns [...]
Analysts blame Mervyn King for economy’s credit drought March 22, 2012 THE BANK of England is creating a “corrosive” environment for credit, according to analysts at UBS, while its claim that regulations are not to blame for choking off lending “holds no water”, they said. Respected banking analysts John-Paul Crutchley and Alastair Ryan accuse BoE governor Mervyn King of failing to recognise that if bank shares do [...]
Glencore deal bonanza helps prop up a struggling market March 22, 2012 THE M&A MARKET might be moribund in 2012, but a handful of massive deals have helped prop up activity figures – and the rankings of several top banks. Glencore’s long-awaited advances on Xstrata in February added $48.9bn to Thomson Reuters’ M&A values for the first quarter of the year. And the army of banks working [...]
TNT Post bids to rival Royal Mail’s service March 22, 2012 TNT POST is further encroaching on Royal Mail territory by launching an end-to-end delivery trial in London as part of a long-term plan to rival the government-owned postal service. Following a successful trial in Liverpool, TNT postal workers will hit the streets of west London from mid-April to test the waters for extending the company’s [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 22, 2012 Allanfield The specialist insurance broker has announced the appointments of Paul Leader and Paul Williams as managing directors of companies in the Allanfield Group. Leader joins in June from global insurance broker HW Wood, where he was director with responsibility for the real estate and commercial teams. Williams joins, with immediate effect, from Gallagher Health [...]
Miners dent FTSE as UK retail suffers blow March 22, 2012 Miners pegged back the FTSE 100 in early trading as more data suggesting China’s economic growth is slowing took its toll. The first full trading session sine Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget speech saw investors shun riskier assets with banks also being knocked back. Factory activity in China was down for the fifth month in a [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 21, 2012 Ashurst The leading international law firm has announced that James Collins has been appointed as managing partner, with effect from 1 May 2012. Collins trained at Ashurst and became partner in 2005. He is currently a banking partner in Paris, with particular expertise in cross-border acquisition finance and restructuring transactions. He succeeds Simon Bromwich, who [...]
Credit easing targets SMEs March 21, 2012 THE CHANCELLOR officially launched his flagship credit easing scheme in yesterday’s Budget, making £5bn of guarantees available for banks to pass on a subsidy to small businesses. But it also emerged that some banks are setting a minimum floor of £25,000 for loans available through the scheme, cutting out access for many “micro-businesses” that the [...]
FTSE buoyed by retailers as investors eye Budget March 21, 2012 THE FTSE 100 headed up in early trading as retailers regained some momentum while investors were turning their attention to the Chancellor’s budget speech. George Osborne is expected to rejig taxes while seeking to keep his austerity plan on track. However figures showing that that public sector net borrowing hit a record for February cast [...]