Horta-Osório does a spot of kitchen sinking May 5, 2011 WAS Antonio Horta-Osório being entirely honest yesterday when he denied kitchen sinking at his first set of results? Not quite: what he did was gut the Lloyds kitchen entirely, clogged dishwasher and all. Then, not content with clearing out his own house, he broke into the homes of RBS, HSBC and Barclays, and stole their [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 5, 2011 Norton Rose The law firm has appointed renewable energy finance specialist Antje Günther as a partner in the firm’s Frankfurt office. Günther, who joins from DLA Piper, where she has worked since 2006, represents financial institutions, corporates and funds in domestic and cross-border transactions. Norton Rose opened a third German office in Hamburg on 1 [...]
Lloyds leads slide in banking stocks as FTSE loses ground May 5, 2011 SLIDING commodity prices thumped energy stocks and miners while Lloyds Banking Group led financials down, pulling Britain’s top share index lower yesterday, with technicals pointing to further weakness. Bearish investors came to the fore as heavyweight commodity stocks Royal Dutch Shell and Lonmin fell 1.8 and 4.1 per cent respectively on lower crude and metal [...]
BNP’s strong first quarter profit sets pace for rivals May 4, 2011 BNP Paribas, France’s biggest listed bank, beat first-quarter forecasts yesterday, driven by strong retail growth and resilient investment banking that bolstered investor confidence and set a high bar for rivals. BNP’s quarterly net income rose 14.6 per cent to €2.62bn (£2.36bn), compared with a a consensus forecast for €2.25bn. Revenue grew 1.3 per cent to [...]
Money supply and credit conditions remain tight May 4, 2011 CONSUMER credit, excluding mortgages, rose by just £100m in March, considerably below economists’ expectations, the Bank of England said yesterday, And the Bank’s preferred gauge of money supply, M4 excluding intermediate other financial corporations rose by 0.1 per cent on the month — down 1.1 per cent on the same time last year. “Today’s money [...]
Commodities drag on FTSE but high street names rally May 4, 2011 COMMODITY stocks pulled Britain’s top share index lower yesterday, ending the FTSE 100’s recent rally as disappointing US manufacturing data spoiled investors’ appetite for risk. The FTSE 100 closed down 98.81 points, or 1.6 per cent, at 5,984.07, with the FTSE volatility index up 11.4 per cent, hitting a near five-week high. The FTSE 100 [...]
HSBC to sell off $30bn of assets in strategic overhaul May 3, 2011 HSBC is set to announce some $30bn (£18.2bn) in asset sales as part of chief executive Stuart Gulliver’s strategic rebalancing of the bank. Insiders have confirmed the $30bn figure to City A.M., which was estimated by Barclays Capital analyst Rohith Chandra-Rajan in a note to investors. The sales will form part of implementing what Gulliver [...]
Banks face further restrictions in war to retain talented staff May 3, 2011 GUIDELINES on implementing the EU’s new bonus regulations will deprive banks of a major way of retaining their most talented staff, experts have said. In detailed guidance issued last week, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) gold-plated EU regulations on bonuses so as to effectively rule out retention bonuses to existing staff. PricewaterhouseCooper’s Jon Terry said: [...]
Trustee for Thornburg Mortgage sues five of its banks for $2.2bn May 3, 2011 THE trustee for home loan provider Thornburg Mortgage is suing Goldman Sachs, Barclays and other banks for a total of $2.2bn (£1.3bn), blaming them for the company’s bankruptcy. The trustee filed four separate lawsuits, one of which blames a “collusive scheme” by units of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse and UBS [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 3, 2011 Ashcourt Rowan Ashcourt Rowan, the wealth management division of Syndicate Asset Management, has appointed Paul Miles as director of intermediary services. Miles joins Ashcourt Rowan from discretionary fund management platform Parmenion, where he was sales director for the last three years. Miles will report to Christopher Jeffreys, Syndicate’s director of asset management, who has been [...]