Why the debate has gone all wrong February 5, 2012 PART of the problem in Britain today is that public debate is taking place in a fact-less vacuum. People have no interest in what is really happening to investment bankers’ pay and prefer to ignore the regulatory revolution across all of finance, including banking, fund management, private equity, trading, accountancy and insurance. Take pay: as [...]
Bank of England expected to release another £50bn of quantitative easing February 5, 2012 ECONOMISTS widely expect at least another £50bn of quantitative easing (QE) to be announced by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Thursday. Committee members including governor Mervyn King have dropped clear hints that they will buy more government bonds to lower interest rates and boost demand, slowing inflation’s rapid decline with the [...]
FTSE flat as investors eye key US jobs data February 3, 2012 THE FTSE was flat in early trading as investors awaited key US jobs data due out later. US non-farm payrolls are forecast to rise by 150,000 after a 200,000 increase in December, while the unemployment rate was expected to remain static at 8.5 per cent. On the domestic data front the UK service industry picked [...]
Tullow Oil to ditch BAML as its broker February 2, 2012 TULLOW Oil, the FTSE 100 oil explorer, yesterday parted company with its long-standing corporate brokers, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) and RBS Hoare Govett, appointing Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley in their place. BAML’s position had been precarious ever since the bank parted company with corporate broker Andrew Osborne in November. Osborne, whom Tullow described [...]
BarCap’s mandate on $5bn float shows its growing clout February 2, 2012 BARCLAYS Capital’s claims to be one of the major players in the world of equity capital markets will only have been enhanced by its inclusion as one of the book-runners in Facebook’s $5bn flotation. It is the only UK-based bank on the list and that alone can act to reinforce the view that it picked [...]
Chinese may invest in euro bailout funds February 2, 2012 MARKETS rose yesterday as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao suggested the country will invest in the Eurozone bailout fund – but fell later when Eurogroup leader Jean Claude Juncker cast doubt on the success of Greek debt talks. Wen (pictured) said the country supports efforts to stabilise the currency, and could invest some of its huge [...]
Facebook unveils float of the year February 1, 2012 FACEBOOK has taken the first official step to becoming a publicly traded company, filing papers yesterday that outline plans to raise $5bn in what could be the biggest float this year. Silicon Valley’s most anticipated flotation will see Facebook represented by ticker symbol FB, although the company did not specify whether it would list on [...]
ADVISERS: MORGAN STANLEY, JP MORGAN, GOLDMAN SACHS ET AL February 1, 2012 MICHAEL GRIMES MORGAN STANLEY Morgan Stanley has landed the coveted lead left spot in Facebook’s long-awaited initial public offering and the deal is likely to be managed by its co-head of global technology investment banking, Michael Grimes. The lucky banker has been on good terms with Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer and former Google [...]
Barclays’ Absa sees earnings rise up to 22pc February 1, 2012 ABSA Group, the South African lender majority owned by Barclays, said yesterday its full-year earnings likely rose by as much as 22 per cent. Absa, which is due to report results on 10 February, said in a statement it expected to report an increase of between 18 and 22 per cent in diluted headline earnings [...]
Strong earnings and Greek hopes cause FTSE to jump February 1, 2012 BULLISH company earnings reports and the prospect of Greece nearing a debt deal helped lift Britain’s FTSE 100 higher yesterday, while robust manufacturing data from China, the US and Europe boosted appetite for the mining sector. London’s blue chip index rose 109.11 points, or 1.9 per cent to 5,790.72. The index closed below 5,800, where [...]