Stress tests failed to test banks October 9, 2011 THE downgrade of a dozen UK banks and eight Portuguese banks on Friday morning ended another tumultuous week in the European banking sector. The Greek farce has dragged on so long that it has fallen from the headlines, despite its potential to bring Europe crashing down around our ears. Instead, focus has shifted to the [...]
Jobs data boosts FTSE but US markets falter October 7, 2011 London stocks have closed slightly higher after better-than-expected US jobs figures prompted an afternoon rally, but US markets remain down after fresh downgrades of Spain and Italy. The FTSE 100 index spiked sharply when US figures showed 103,000 new jobs created, and while it gave up most of the gains it still closed up 0.2 [...]
Del Monte and BarCap settle October 6, 2011 DEL Monte and its financial adviser Barclays Capital yesterday agreed to pay $89.4m (£57.9m) to settle a lawsuit that claimed they had not acted in investors’ best interests in the food company’s $4bn buy-out last year. Investors claimed that Barclays, which advised Del Monte on its sale to a private equity group led by KKR, [...]
Banks hired as first stage in esure’s London listing October 5, 2011 THE INSURANCE tycoon Peter Wood has lined up bankers to prepare a bumper listing of esure, reports last night said. Wood, who also founded the car insurer Direct Line, is said to have hired Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan to help ready the company for a stock market flotation that is being earmarked for next [...]
Barclay brothers reveal flow of bids for Ritz hotel October 5, 2011 SIR DAVID and Sir Frederick Barclay have recieved several unsolicited bids for their Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly and have valued the legendary site to be worth more than £625m. The Barclay brothers, who also own the Telegraph newspapers, revealed the approaches in the hotel’s annual results published on companies house, which also states that the [...]
UK’s services in unexpected lift to growth October 5, 2011 SERVICES expanded unexpectedly quickly in the UK in September, according to the purchasing managers index (PMI) from Markit, out yesterday. Any figure above 50 represents expansion, and services in the UK rose from 51.1 in August to 52.9 in September on the index. The higher number shows the sector increased its pace of growth. Composite [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 5, 2011 Victoria Private Investment Office The financial adviser and wealth management business, previously Victoria Capital, has relaunched as it aims to reach a wider market. Leading the firm’s expansion is Heather Maizels, the former head of Barclays Private Bank, who has been appointed as managing director. As an advisory board member of Barclays Wealth, which she [...]
Greek progress lends a hand to FTSE despite retail worries October 5, 2011 RALLIES by hard-pressed banks, insurers and commodity stocks led a bounce back by Britain’s top shares yesterday as support for debt-laden Greece revived investor appetite for riskier assets. Financial issues were boosted after the International Monetary Fund said it “definitely participate” in a second bailout package for Greece if the Washington-based lender was happy about [...]
SHARES SLUMP AS EURO FEARS GROW October 4, 2011 THE EUROZONE’S escalating financial crisis hammered European stocks yesterday, with markets also dampened by growing concerns over the fragility of the global recovery. The bad news was compounded after hours as Moody’s downgraded Italy by three notches, from Aa2 to A2. The prospect of a Greek default was heightened by an apparent delay in the [...]
Share price is undervalued, says Diamond October 4, 2011 THEY could not have timed it any better – or should that be any worse? Some of the biggest names in banking came together in London yesterday as industry shares fell over fears politicians are failing to tackle the Eurozone crisis. Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays, told the Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference [...]