BNP Paribas books 45pc rise in profit November 5, 2009 INVESTMENT banking and acquisitions helped France’s BNP Paribas to beat forecasts with higher third-quarter profits, but it was silent about whether it may buy parts of ailing British banks. Assets bought by BNP?from Fortis boosted the eurozone’s second-largest bank after Spain’s Santander, as well as taking investment banking and wealth management market share from rivals [...]
Quintain Estates joins rivals in property cash call frenzy November 5, 2009 PROPERTY developer Quintain Estates yesterday unveiled a fully underwritten £191.2m cash call to reduce its debt pile and fund construction projects. Quintain said the three-for-one rights issue of 390m shares would be priced at 49p – a 72 per cent discount to Wednesday’s closing price. The group said the net proceeds would be £183.5m after [...]
FINANCIAL TIMES November 5, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES LULA CALLS ON LEADERS TO ATTEND CLIMATE TALKSBrazil’s president has challenged other world leaders to attend next month’s climate talks in Copenhagen to break the deadlock in negotiations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told the Financial Times he would speak to Barack Obama, US president, next week to [...]
Barclays bank staff revamp gathers pace November 5, 2009 FORMER Citigroup banker Tom King – due to join Barclays Capital next month – is set to become head of investment banking for Europe, the MiddleEast, and Africa. In the latest move in Barclays’ recent management shake-up, King will report to Barclays Capital’s head of global investment banking, Hugh “Skip” McGee. The role is currently [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 5, 2009 Association of British InsurersThe ABI has appointed Kerrie Kelly, currently chief executive of the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), as its new director general, effective from next February. Kelly has led the ICA since 2006, having formerly been CEO of the country’s Financial Planning Association. She is currently a non-executive director at HSBC in Australia, [...]
THE LONDON REPORT November 4, 2009 LONDON’S leading shares ended 1.4 per cent higher yesterday, boosted by a rebound from miners and banks, with retailers Next and Marks & Spencer also higher after posting forecast-beating figures. At the close, the FTSE 100 was up 70.68 points at 5,107.89, recouping all of Tuesday’s losses when the index fell 1.3 per cent to [...]
The City lawyer who argues that banking has become even riskier November 4, 2009 T o David Morley, the phrase “it is better to travel than to arrive” must sound pretty strange, an expression invented only for those unfortunate souls who have not learnt to move at speed. For Morley, who joined top law firm Allen & Overy in 1980 and has led it as senior partner since last [...]
How brand perceptions differ across the pond November 3, 2009 HOW different are British and American perceptions of the same brands? We took a quick look at the BrandIndex UK and US scores of three pairs of brands. Not surprisingly, American Airlines did better in America (average for the last year, plus 14) than in the UK (plus 6), and British Airways did better in [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 3, 2009 Gleacher ShacklockThe corporate advisory firm has appointed Peter Alcaraz as a senior adviser, effective from next spring.Alcaraz, who will be tasked with helping to develop the firm’s franchise in the services sector, joins from Close Brothers Corporate Finance, where he was most recently a managing director and head of the services sector team. He has [...]
Myths and reality of the bank shake-up November 3, 2009 AS predictably as day follows night, the myth-making machine spiralled out of control again yesterday. Perhaps the biggest is that the UK banking system is uniquely concentrated. As Citigroup research reveals, this simply is not so: overall UK banking system concentration (using the World Bank’s measure of assets of the biggest three banks as a [...]