CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 21, 2010 Advent International The private equity firm has appointed Marcello Bottoli, the ex-chief executive of Samsonite, as an adviser focusing on opportunities in the retail and consumer sectors, especially branded consumer products, fashion and luxury goods. Bottoli led Samsonite for five years up until January 2009, during which time he turned around the firm and oversaw [...]
Government cuts herald tough times for services firms September 12, 2010 CONNAUGHT’S high-profile collapse has ushered in a period of intense difficulty for other services companies, according to the latest monthly City A.M./Begbies Traynor health monitor for the Square Mile. The social housing maintenance specialist, which fell into administration last week, is not alone in having felt the pressure of impending government spending cutbacks and poor-quality [...]
Property price slide starts to feed through to companies August 15, 2010 RENEWED weakness in the housing market pushed more real estate services companies to the brink in July, according to the latest monthly City A.M./Begbies Traynor health monitor for the Square Mile. As economists look to September as the “crunch time” for Britain’s struggling property sector, our survey shows 945 firms across London including estate agents, [...]
Final call for Goldtrail hols July 18, 2010 THE LAST of Goldtrail’s holidaymakers are making their way home this week as administrator Begbies Traynor begins to wind up the failed budget holiday operator. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said all flights back from Greece and Turkey will operate as normal today through charter airlines such as Onur Air, Turkuaz and Viking, with flights [...]
Public sector building slump raises double-dip fears July 12, 2010 A SHARP drop in public sector building activity caused commercial development to fall to the lowest monthly level in nearly a year in June, according to property advisor Savills. The company said its Commercial Development Activity Index showed a net balance of minus 2.8 percent in June, the lowest reading in 11 months, down from [...]
Financial companies left behind in upturn July 11, 2010 STRESS levels are mounting at financial services firms even as corporates across the board begin to recover, according to the latest monthly City A.M./Begbies Taynor health monitor for the Square Mile. While companies in Greater London showed a marked improvement in June, with 23 per cent fewer suffering from serious problems, woes continued to pile [...]
Insolvencies set to escalate July 8, 2010 UK insolvencies are forecast to rise next year as austerity measures start to bite, with more than 127,000 companies continuing to suffer “significant” financial distress, restructuring specialist Begbies Traynor warned yesterday. In total the struggling companies owed £69.5m at the end of the second quarter – a rise of 26 per cent compared to the [...]
Carlyle Group faces $1bn lawsuit over failed fund July 7, 2010 CARLYLE Group is being sued by the liquidators of a failed mortgage-securities fund that was set up by the private equity group, a spokesman for the liquidators said. The lawsuit, which is being filed in the United States and Europe, alleges that Carlyle Group and the former directors of the mortgage-securities fund, Carlyle Capital Corp, [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 7, 2010 Religare Enterprises The Indian financial services group has appointed Stuart Pearce, pictured, and Kathryn Matthews as independent board directors. Pearce has over 35 years of experience in the sector and was previously chief executive and director general of the Qatar Financial Centre Authority. He has also worked as chief executive of UK investment management at [...]
Mid-market firms feel the upturn strain June 13, 2010 MIDDLE market lawyers and consultants are struggling to tap into the nascent economic recovery, according to the second monthly City A.M./Begbies Traynor health monitor for the Square Mile. While bigger players are benefiting from the return of property development and corporate activity, our numbers show smaller operations are fighting to survive as clients demand more [...]