Sipps are a tasty cocktail but are too neat for some March 4, 2012 ON THE face of it, self-invested personal pensions (Sipp) appear to be the perfect way for everyone to save for the future – offering the investment trinity of value, flexibility and choice. But Sipps aren’t always and everywhere the right choice – it could pay to weigh up the pros and cons. THE TRANSFER MARKET [...]
FTSE sees banks up as Greece is saved March 2, 2012 The FTSE 100 was flat this morning and the only significant gainers were banks buoyed by further steps towards saving Greece from the financial abyss. In Wall Street and in Asia nudged up overnight as the European Central Bank’s fresh liquidity injection this week served to warm up investor sentiment. The spotlight is on the [...]
Barclays taps ECB FOR £6.8bn March 2, 2012 Barclays said it tapped the European Central Bank (ECB) for 8.2 euros (£6.8bn) at its offer for ultra-cheap long-term funding this week. Barclays did not take any cash at the previous offer in December, and had indicated it had no plans to take any funds. It said on Friday the money would be used to [...]
Edwards hires banks for US flotation plan March 1, 2012 EDWARDS, a private equity-backed vacuum pump engineering company based in Crawley, is poised to try its luck with an IPO in the US after London gave it the thumbs-down last year. The group’s backers, CCMP Capital and Unitas Capital, have hired a group of banks, including Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital, to prepare for a [...]
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 [...]