CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 15, 2010 Barclays Barclays has appointed Paul McNamara (pictured) as MD of insurance and investments to strengthen the bank’s ability to make protection insurance more accessible. McNamara comes from Standard Life, where he was MD for group strategy and corporate finance, before which he was a director of marketing and distribution at HBOS financial services. In another [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 15, 2010 MARKS & SPENCER Deutsche Bank rates the high street giant a “hold” with a target price of 430p. The broker believes the benefits of new boss Marc Bolland’s overhaul of the stores will not be seen until 2012/13. However, DB says the retailer’s recent results pointed to strong sales momentum in the short term, with [...]
The man who is set to bring more luxury to London’s five-star hotels November 14, 2010 LONDON’S five-star hotel market is set to take off over the next six months and a septuagenarian Maltese businessman called Alfred Pisani will be at the heart of the glamorous action. His £300m luxury Corinthia Hotel London, on Whitehall Place, is being completed and will take its first paying guests in April 2011. It is [...]
Barclays funds student scheme November 14, 2010 Barclays Real Estate has closed and funded a £66m senior debt facility for the Unite Group, the student accommodation provider and manager. The facility, which includes £50m for the development phase, enabled Unite to buy a sit at Great Suffolk Street on the Southbank for purpose-built student accommodation, which will be one of the largest [...]
CITY SETS OFF HALF A TONNE OF FIREWORKS November 14, 2010 LONDONERS were treated to one of the capital’s biggest public fireworks displays of the year on Saturday, as the Lord Mayor’s grand finale boasted nearly half a tonne of fireworks. The show’s 800-year old parade was three miles long this time – twice as long as the route it followed from Temple to Bank – [...]
How to avoid the dog funds November 11, 2010 AN ASTONISHING £13bn is languishing in so-called dog funds, which persistently fail to deliver returns for investors, according to BestInvest’s biannual Spot the Dog report published earlier this week. Spot the Dog branded Jupiter as the worst performing investment house in terms of the value of assets in dog funds. Also among the main culprits [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS November 11, 2010 FLEXIBLE DRAWDOWN SUITABLE FOR MOST Over 90 per cent of financial advisers think that flexible drawdown would be a suitable retirement solution for their clients, according to research conducted by pension product provider Suffolk Life. Suffolk Life’s John Moret said: “Industry statistics suggest that the number of new drawdown cases in 2010 is likely to [...]
CITY PAYS ITS DEEPEST RESPECTS TO BRITAIN’S FALLEN WAR HEROES November 11, 2010 SILENCE blanketed the City of London yesterday at 11am, to mark the anniversary of Armistice Day, the end of the First World War. The largest remembrance ceremony took place at Lloyd’s of London, where 5,000 members of the insurance market gathered on the trading floor to watch on as their chairman Lord Levene and Lord [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 11, 2010 Collins Stewart The investment banking group said yesterday it will open a new derivatives desk, headed by Roger Sharma (pictured) and Brad Dunstan. Sharma and Dunstan, who become co-heads of European equity derivatives, joined this week from inter-dealer broker Icap, where they had been working in senior derivatives sales since the beginning of last year. [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 10, 2010 Aveva The engineering software group has appointed James Kidd to its board as its new chief financial officer, effective from the beginning of next year. He replaces Paul Taylor, who has been finance director for the past decade. Kidd, 40, has been at Aveva since 2004, including four years as head of finance. A chartered [...]