Kurt Geiger is sold to US retail group for £215m June 2, 2011 US designer and marketer The Jones Group yesterday bought upscale shoe retailer Kurt Geiger for £215m, giving it a foothold in the European retail market. Kurt Geiger, which has been majority owned by private equity house Graphite Capital since a management buyout in 2008, had sales of £205m in the year to April 2011. It [...]
Sharp fall in Spain’s unemployment rate June 2, 2011 SPAIN’S economy was boosted yesterday by data showing a sharp decline in unemployment benefit claims. Registered unemployment dropped by 1.87 per cent in May, compared to April, official figures showed. Benefits were down 79,701, to 4.19m. Compared to the same time last year, jobless claims were still up 3.04 per cent. The struggling Eurozone economy [...]
STORM CLOUDS GATHER OVER THE ECONOMY June 2, 2011 ■ Slowest US and UK factory activity since September 2009 ■ Inflation pressures start to feed through into British wages ■ Yields on 10-year US government bonds fall to three per cent STORM clouds gathered over the global economy yesterday, as a raft of gloomy data poured doubt on the strength of the UK and world [...]
Lloyds will be hit by fall in house prices June 1, 2011 LLOYDS would be the hardest hit of the UK banks by an expected decline in house prices over the next two years, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley. A note released yesterday by researchers at the bank painted a more pessimistic view of the housing market than analysts had previously predicted, with a 10 per [...]
Swiss Re buys life assets June 1, 2011 SWISS RE, the global reinsurance giant, agreed to take over £1.6bn UK life insurance assets from American Life Insurance Company for an undisclosed amount yesterday. Swiss Re will reinsure and administer 300,000 UK policies from Alico, a 50-country, US-based insurer. They include pension and investment bonds written before 2008 and will be managed by Swiss [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 1, 2011 Religare Capital Markets Richard Thompson has joined Religare Capital Markets as head of investment banking for the London listings and broking business. Thompson joins from Fox-Davies Capital, where he was head of investment banking. Three other members of the Fox-Davies Capital team have also joined RCML: Philip Davies, who will focus on equity capital markets [...]
REVEALED: HOW RICHARD DESMOND FIRST DRUMMED UP NEW BUSINESS June 1, 2011 EVERYONE has to start somewhere. Even Richard Desmond, the media baron with a personal fortune of £950m who bought Channel Five last July with some spare change he found down the back of his sofa. Desmond started on the road to founding his media empire early – aged 13, in fact, when he took his [...]
Iceland eyes bond issue May 31, 2011 ICELAND is planning to meet investors this month about a possible Eurobond, one of the lead managers said yesterday, as the country prepares its first international sale of bonds since its economic meltdown. Iceland, which is recovering from its worst-ever downturn following the collapse of its top banks, has planned investor meetings for June 1-8 [...]
Serco jumps on Indian buy May 31, 2011 SERCO shares were among the top risers in the FTSE 100 yesterday after the outsourcing giant bought Indian back-office company Intelenet for £385m. Serco, which has been gunning for more work overseas, said it expects the business process outsourcing (BPO) marketplace to grow up to 15 per cent a year to reach $291bn (£177bn) globally [...]
Aldermore says loans to SMEs have risen 75pc May 31, 2011 BRITISH bank Aldermore said its loan book to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was up 75 per cent to £469m at the end of the first-quarter. “Aldermore is continuing to lend at record levels to small businesses – our outstanding loan book to SMEs has increased 75 per cent over the last year – but [...]