CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 2, 2011 Brookland Partners The investment bank has appointed Griff Winkler as a director, where he will focus on expanding the firm through identifying investment opportunities from capital providers and other JV partners. Winkler joins from Hatfield Philips, where he was vice president of the non-performing commercial real estate loan group. He also brings five years of [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS May 2, 2011 ROYAL DUTCH SHELL RBS rates the oil group “buy” with a target price of £24 following the firm’s quarterly results last week. Shell’s net income was five per cent above the broker’s forecasts, mirroring BP’s strong performance earlier in the week. Only the upstream business fell short, coming in at two per cent below RBS [...]
Barclays suffers from indigestion after U-turn on Protium deal April 27, 2011 WHEN Barclays gave the name of Protium, an indigestion medicine, to an accounting trick it pulled off in 2009, the bank hardly imagined it would be forced to re-absorb most of the $12.5bn (£7.5bn) of assets that it had moved off balance sheet within 18 months. That was short-sighted, according to analysts who yesterday dubbed [...]
Barclays fails to live up to expectations April 27, 2011 BARCLAYS yesterday unveiled a disappointing set of results, prompting its shares to dip 3.26 per cent as investors lost faith in chief executive Bob Diamond’s (pictured) ability to deliver on an ambitious 13-15 per cent returns target. Pre-tax profit dropped to £1.66bn, nine per cent down on the first-quarter of 2010, with the corporate and [...]
Protium: Picking a solution out of thin air April 27, 2011 THE toxic assets that make up Barclays’ so-called Protium portfolio are aptly-named. Protium is the most common isotope of hydrogen gas, and the bank was plucking a solution out of thin air when it used a barely-disguised accounting trick to push $9.8bn of toxic assets off its balance sheet. Little wonder the manoeuvre has failed: [...]
Conoco earnings fall short of Wall St expectations April 27, 2011 CONOCOPHILIPS yesterday reported higher first-quarter earnings that fell short of Wall Street expectations as its oil and gas production and refining results disappointed. Conoco’s production, which missed the company’s and Wall Street’s targets, was hurt by civil unrest in Libya, a temporary shutdown of the Trans Alaska Pipeline system in January and asset sales, Conoco [...]
FTSE flat as investors await news of Fed’s monetary policy April 27, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index ended flat yesterday ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s news conference which could provide clues on the Fed’s future plans for its monetary policy. The blue-chip FTSE 100 was down 1.2 points or 0.02 per cent at 6,068.16, having hit a 9-week closing high on Tuesday. Volume was only 87.6 [...]
Barclays profit drops April 27, 2011 Barclays said its profit fell nine per cent from a year ago as it took a hit on the value of its own credit and income at its key investment banking arm dipped. Barclays reported a pretax profit of £1.66bn for the January-March period, just below forecasts and down from £1.82bn a year ago. Adjusted [...]
Barclays faces protests over food speculation April 26, 2011 BARCLAYS could see its annual meeting today disrupted by a group of protestors complaining about it speculating on food prices. The World Development Movement says it will protest against Barclays “pushing up the price of staple food”. Barclays Capital told City A.M. it acts “as an intermediary for our clients.” Protesters say banks are “profiting [...]
FTSE closes at two-month high despite light volumes April 26, 2011 aBRITAIN’S FTSE 100 closed at its highest level in over two months yesterday, albeit in light volumes, as earnings from the US and Europe supported gains ahead of results from UK companies such as ARM and BP. The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed up 0.9 per cent at 6,069.36, with volumes still thin after the four-day [...]