Lansdowne fund hit by 2011 slump January 17, 2012 HEDGE fund Lansdowne Partners has emerged as the latest casualty of a dire 2011 for the industry with a slump of more than a fifth at a key British fund. The Lansdowne UK Fund lost 20.07 per cent last year, its first annual loss since it was launched 10 years ago. The $1.7 trillion (£1.1 [...]
Irish Life picks new bank boss January 16, 2012 Irish Life & Permanent has hired Jeremy Masding as the new chief executive of its banking business, Permanent TSB. The bailed-out bank, which is splitting its business in late March, said its current chief executive David Guinane will leave the firm when Masding joins in February. Masding spend 23 years at Barclays, after which he [...]
FTSE rises as investors shift gaze from Eurozone to China January 16, 2012 BRITAIN’S top shares rose yesterday, led by miners, as investors’ attention shifted from the Euro zone debt crisis towards economic data from China. Mining stocks tracked metals prices higher as markets eyed a batch of Chinese data due today, including GDP and industrial production, for further clues on the outlook for demand. “There’s a perception [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland pulls plug on Peacocks January 15, 2012 PEACOCKS, the fashion retail chain, is teetering on the brink of administration after Royal Bank of Scotland, one of its senior lenders, pulled the plug on talks to refinance the company. A syndicate of 18 lenders, including Barclays, Goldman Sachs and hedge funds including Och Ziff and Perry Capital, had jointly been working on a [...]
Banks welcome China-UK talks on forex trade January 15, 2012 TWO OF Britain’s biggest banks have welcomed government efforts to establish the City as the world’s biggest centre for trading China’s currency outside Hong Kong. Standard Chartered chief executive Peter Sands and his counterpart at HSBC, Stuart Gulliver, have both committed to send senior representatives to bi-annual lobbying meetings with the Bank of China, Barclays [...]
Banks debate greater pay transparency January 15, 2012 BANKS are mulling an unprecedented level of transparency in the way they disclose directors’ pay that could pre-empt government moves to make it easier to understand their bonuses. An industry source at one of the UK’s big-four banks told City A.M. that some lenders are having animated debates about how can they defuse the row [...]
Private sector bidders line up to win MoD outsourcing contracts January 15, 2012 SUPPORT services firm Serco is in the running to win two key contracts at the Ministry of Defence. The group is believed to be battling IBM for the contract to manage back office services, such as human resources and finance, for the department. It is also thought to be up against Capita for the right [...]
Meccano-set towers: how London offices are evolving January 15, 2012 JE ne regrette rien. That is the message from Chris Grigg when we discuss his decision to quit banking in 2008 to take the reins at commercial property giant British Land. At the time, many in the City thought the former head of Barclays’ commercial bank was simply quitting one troubled industry for another; his [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 15, 2012 Grosvenor Group Former Morgan Stanley managing director Owen Thomas has joined the board of the global property group Grosvenor as a non-executive director. Thomas was most recently CEO of Morgan Stanley’s Asian operation, chairman of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, chairman of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities and a member of the bank’s management committee. [...]
Banks lead FTSE up after bond auctions boost January 13, 2012 Banks led the FTSE 100 up this morning as they were buoyed by tentative signs of recovery in the Eurozone. European shares and the single currency rose after positive comments on the region’s outlook from the European Central Bank and the success of Spain’s bond auction yesterday. Meanwhile Italy launched a €4.75bn bond auction today. [...]