Taylor Wimpey sees profits at top end of market views November 16, 2010 HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey said it expects profit to be at the high end of estimates this year thanks to stable sales, while a £950m refinancing deal will give the firm more flexible trading conditions next year. The company has an order book worth £883m, down 8.4 per cent on last year, though the firm said [...]
K1 founder charged with fraud for Ponzi scheme November 16, 2010 HELMUT Kiener, founder of German hedge fund group K1, is being charged with fraud, forgery of documents and tax evasion more than a year after he was arrested in a multi-million-dollar investigation. He is accused of having swindled investors out of about €345m (£293.6m) with an elaborate Ponzi scheme, the public prosecutors’ office in Wuerzburg, [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 16, 2010 Barclays Corporate Barclays Corporate has appointed a new head of financial institutions. Matt Tuck will return to the bank where he started his career, having worked for the last eight years for Deutsche Bank. In his new role, he will be responsible for enacting a new stage in the expansion of the bank’s financial institutions [...]
Barclays hopes its new CoCo will prove a hit with investors November 15, 2010 BARCLAYS is experimenting with a new contingent convertible (CoCo) in a bid to prepare itself for new European capital rules. It has devised a new CoCo that would not only convert to equity if the bank’s capital ratio declined, but convert back again if things improved again. The debt instruments will count towards capital buffers [...]
BHP moves on from Potash takeover bid November 15, 2010 MINING giant BHP Billiton’s shares rose yesterday following its decision to abandon its hostile takeover of Potash Corp and begin a $4.2bn (£2.6bn) share buyback, as analysts pored over the world’s largest mining group’s next move. BHP’s London-listed shares closed 1.8 per cent up at £24.06, outperforming a 0.4 per cent gain in the FTSE [...]
RUBENS AND CHARLES I WATCH LUXURY GONGS November 15, 2010 THE great and good of the British luxury brands industry gathered for one of the biggest events of the year last night, as its lobbying group, Walpole, held its annual awards. In Whitehall’s Banqueting Hall, under the glow of a delicately lit ceiling of Rubens masterpieces and near the site where King Charles I was [...]
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 [...]