CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 23, 2010 PVE CAPITAL The investment group has appointed two new members to its team managing the Matrix PVE Global Credit Fund, a hedge fund launched in October last year as a joint venture between PVE Capital and private equity firm Matrix. Elena Ciampichetti joins as head of credit research from Citi, where she was a managing [...]
FTSE rocked as mining shares fall on commodity price drop February 23, 2010 BRITAIN’S top shares shed 0.7 per cent yesterday, tracking early falls on Wall Street and pressured by weaker miners and energy issues as commodity prices fell with a firmer dollar after dull data. At the close, the FTSE 100 was 36.98 points lower at 5,315.09, having hit a one-month high earlier in the session. US [...]
Lloyds boss Daniels to waive bonus February 22, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group chief executive Eric Daniels yesterday bowed to populist acrimony over City remuneration by becoming the fourth major bank boss in a week to surrender his contractual bonus for the year. Daniels had been entitled to a potential maximum payout of £6.5m for the 2009 financial year, of which just £1.04m represents his [...]
BA staff can’t resist change for ever February 22, 2010 WHAT a shame British Airways’ cabin crew has voted to strike. Willie Walsh, the firm’s chief, is doing a good job in extremely tough conditions to take out costs and ensure the airline will still be with us in five years’ time – yet some of his staff still seem to believe that it is [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 22, 2010 KPMG The accountancy giant has appointed Michelle Quest as its new head of people in the UK, having spent the past 13 years of her career at the firm. Quest joined KPMG from Robson Rhodes in 1997 and became an M&A tax partner in the tax and people services practice in 2003. She takes over [...]
Conditions are brewing for strong coffee prices February 22, 2010 WHILE the surge in sugar has dominated the headlines and the commodity markets over the past six months, prices of other soft commodities such as coffee have been steadily rising. Coffee has risen 23.2 per cent over the past year and there is now speculation that it could be the next bull story in the [...]
RBS boss Hester to waive £1.6m bonus February 22, 2010 ROYAL Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester has decided to waive the bumper £1.6m bonus to which he is contractually entitled for this year, amid a fierce torrent of populist anger over remuneration in the banking sector. The news comes after Barclays chief executive John Varley and president Bob Diamond set the bar for [...]
Public is still angry at City February 22, 2010 THERE is overwhelming public support for a cap on bankers’ pay and a windfall tax on bonuses, according to a poll. A YouGov poll has found that 76 per cent of people would support a cap on bonuses, while 59 per cent would back a windfall tax on bankers’ bonuses. Of that, 60 per cent [...]
SPREAD BET GURU February 21, 2010 Q.Dear Josh, does Barclays’ stellar results for 2009 mean that RBS and Lloyds will follow suit this week? A.My first thoughts are to be careful as this is not a straightforward trading strategy. While there is always some form of a correlation between companies that are in the same sector, stocks can become very volatile [...]
State-owned banks lag their peers February 21, 2010 BANKS were the star performers in the FTSE 100 last week, after Barclays reported its best ever profit of £11.6bn in 2009, an increase of 92 per cent in just 12 months. This week the focus shifts to RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, who will announce earnings on Thursday and Friday respectively. After the turmoil [...]