Barclays Capital wins another client as G4S switches advisers March 1, 2012 BARCLAYS Capital’s investment banking ambitions were given a further boost yesterday after being appointed as joint financial adviser to the FTSE 100 security group G4S. The news comes just hours after the group poached Mark Astaire, the former head of corporate broking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Although G4S will not count as a [...]
Blackstone goes to Bedfordshire for £250m Center Parcs venture March 1, 2012 CENTER Parcs, the private equity-backed holiday village operator, is to open a fifth site in Britain after a £1bn refinancing. The group said construction of the £250m park, in Woburn in Bedfordshire, will create 1,500 jobs and a further 1,200 in construction. Blackstone, which bought Center Parcs in 2006, will put another £100m into the [...]
Eurozone hit by fall in jobs and output March 1, 2012 EUROZONE unemployment increased in January and manufacturing output fell again in February, new data revealed yesterday. Greece led the decline with a record fall in factory output, while Spain now leads the currency area in joblessness, with unemployment at 23.3 per cent. Overall Eurozone unemployment increased to 10.7 per cent in January, or 16.925m people, [...]
Banks and financial shares lift FTSE on liquidity surge March 1, 2012 BANKS and other financial stocks, buoyed by central bank infusions of money into the system, helped Britain’s top share index rebound yesterday with fund manager Man Group surging after it reported client outflows have slowed. London’s blue-chip index closed up 59.74 points, or 1 per cent, at 5,931.25, erasing the 1 per cent drop on [...]
A plan for UK growth needs more than warm words: An entrepreneur’s call to arms March 1, 2012 LIKE most entrepreneurs, I love my business and I want to grow it. It would seem, from all the government’s powerful rhetoric, that David Cameron loves my business, too. After all, the official line is that this is the year the government needs to unlock the creativity and entrepreneurial talent buried deep in many of [...]
FTSE lifted by strong corporate results March 1, 2012 The FTSE 100 edged up this morning led by the financial and energy sectors, while heavyweights WPP and Man Group reporting strong results. London’s blue chip index gained despite losses in the US and Asia triggered by the Fed failing to signal and more stimulus measures and mixed economic data out of China. Factory figures [...]
Barclays in key hiring from rival February 29, 2012 BARCLAYS Capital has demonstrated its ambition to become a leading player in UK investment banking, hiring Mark Astaire, head of corporate broking, from rival Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Astaire, who is now on three months’ gardening leave, joins his former colleague Richard Taylor at BarCap, where he will be charged with driving the team [...]
CVC is set to break private equity dry spell across Europe February 29, 2012 CVC Capital Partners is to buy Nordic construction products and machinery distributor Ahlsell from Cinven and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners for €1.8bn (£1.5bn), in Europe’s biggest private equity deal since last summer. “Our acquisition of Ahlsell offers an exciting platform for growth, both organically and through acquisitions,” CVC partners Peter Tornquist and Soren Vestergaard-Poulsen said [...]
Eurozone growth stays shaky February 29, 2012 EUROZONE growth prospects looked uneven after data out yesterday showed unemployment held steady in Germany in February, where credit conditions continued to ease – and weaker signs came from France, where household spending dropped unexpectedly sharply. Eurozone inflation was revised down to 2.6 per cent in the year to January, which economists believe reflects low [...]
FTSE flat as ECB pours in more funds February 29, 2012 The FTSE 100 was flat this morning with investors awaiting another injection of cash from the European Central Bank, aimed at propping up the Eurozone. The ECB is expected to pump about 500bn euros (£422bn) into the Eurozone’s financial system to fight the region’s debt crisis, enabling banks to tap as many of the ultra-cheap, [...]