LENDERS WIN CONTROL OF CHEZ GERARD July 20, 2009 THE CHEZ Gerard and Bertorelli restaurant chains fell under the control of bankers yesterday. Silverfleet Capital, the private equity company, sold the chains’ owner Paramount Restaurants to its bankers, RBS, HSBC, Barclays and Sankaty for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to cut Paramount’s debts by around half to £65m.
Barclays star Jenkins to quit the bank to set up his own business July 19, 2009 TOP Barclays dealmaker Roger Jenkins is understood to be leaving the bank to set up an advisory business targeting sovereign wealth funds. Jenkins, thought to earn around £40m a year, was instrumental in securing the £5.8bn investment from Middle Eastern state-backed investors that helped the bank steer clear of government control. The news comes as [...]
Banks back to winning ways July 19, 2009 MORGAN Stanley and Credit Suisse will continue the resurgence of fortunes among the world’s biggest banks this week, when they report second quarter results expected to show a gradual recovery. Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley, which reports on Wednesday, is forecast to show a slight improvement from the first quarter, cutting losses from $0.57 (£0.35) [...]
RBS pay restrictions lead to loss of talented staff to competitors July 19, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Scotland has lost more than 700 of its top investment bankers to rivals as it labours under government restrictions on compensation policy. The bank cannot pay cash bonuses this year as a result of the government bailout which has left it 70 per cent owned by the Treasury. Rivals are understood to [...]
Huge change in the City’s roll of power July 19, 2009 A YEAR of financial turmoil has wiped all but a quarter of last year’s 100 most influential people in European financial markets off the current roll of power. This year’s Financial News FN100 listing, which has the highest rate of turnover in its five-year history, reflects the huge overhaul of top talent the credit crunch [...]
High volatility will add sizzle to your summer trading July 19, 2009 DURING the summer months, the stock markets, like everything else, quieten down in July and August as people head off on holiday and companies scale back their activity. The result is noticeably lighter trading volumes and relative illiquidity in the markets. As a spread better, you might therefore be inclined to take a break like [...]
Barclays brings Goldman man onto its board July 16, 2009 BARCLAYS named Goldman Sachs veteran Reuben Jeffery as a non-executive director yesterday, on the same day the Walker report called for more banking expertise on bank’s boards. The bank said Jeffery, who served in the US government as under secretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs from 2007 until earlier this year, joins [...]
Walker’s way: evolution, not revolution July 16, 2009 WHENEVER anything goes wrong in British business, governments wheel out the corporate governance experts. Most of the time, this achieves absolutely nothing. Yesterday’s report by Sir David Walker, which is far from revolutionary, will achieve some – but not much – good. There are two main reasons why Walker won’t satisfy the ridiculously high ambitions [...]
Autonomy slips on missed forecasts but banks lift FTSE July 16, 2009 UPBEAT results from JP Morgan boosted banks while energy and pharmaceutical stocks also gained, leading Britain’s top share index to close at a one-month high, up for a fourth session yesterday. The index was trading in slightly negative territory in early trade but the JP Morgan results which were announced around mid-session lifted the FTSE [...]
Goldman Sachs and Intel trigger bumper day on FTSE July 15, 2009 STRONG corporate earnings numbers and improving economic data from the US lifted the blue chip share index by 2.6 per cent to its highest close in four weeks yesterday. Led by energy firms and banks, the FTSE 100 index ended up 108.78 points at 4,346.46, its third day of gains. The UK benchmark is up [...]