Christmas sugar rush boosts Thorntons’ high street sales January 19, 2015 HIGH street sales at chocolate retailer Thorntons surged over the Christmas period as consumers tucked into its advent calendars and Snowman-themed treats. The company said like-for-like retail sales rose by five per cent in the 14 weeks to 10 January and by 7.8 per cent in December – a turnaround from the 3.7 per cent [...]
Investec looks to M&A expansion as investment bank gets its Guy January 14, 2015 SOUTH African specialist banking and asset management group Investec yesterday added to its investment banking business with the appointment of veteran M&A adviser Guy Gillett. Working closely with head of consumer Gary Levin, Gillett is charged with strengthening Investec’s M&A offering, particularly focusing on private companies and private equity clients. Gillett joins from Ternion Capital, [...]
RBS shortlists international groups for Queen’s bank sale January 14, 2015 J SAFRA Sarasin and a consortium comprising Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings are among banks shortlisted for the second round sale process of Coutts International, people familiar with the matter said yesterday. The sale of the private bank of Royal Bank of Scotland has attracted about 10 suitors in the initial round, and could fetch about [...]
Christmas came too late to help Debenhams January 13, 2015 DEBENHAMS posted an unexpected fall in first-quarter sales yesterday as a strong Christmas failed to undo the damage of mild autumn weather. Britain’s number two department store chain said that UK like-for-like sales for the 19 weeks to 10 January fell 0.8 per cent, below analyst expectations for a one per cent rise, as demand [...]
More money in your pocket: Tumbling oil prices, £1 a litre petrol, supermarket price wars and mortgage provider competition January 12, 2015 Britons should be able to loosen their purse strings further this year, with tumbling oil prices, a supermarket price war and intense competition between mortgage providers forcing down the average cost of living. Supermarket chains Morrisons and Sainsbury’s – which together operate over 600 petrol stations – will both cut the price of unleaded petrol [...]
City Moves for 13 January 2015 | Who’s switching jobs January 12, 2015 Grosvenor Fund Management The investment firm has appointed Gaston Brandes as director of capital markets, Europe. He joins from UBS Global Asset Management, where he was executive director of global real estate business development. Brandes has also held roles at Franklin Templeton Investment Services. Brown Rudnick The law firm has appointed Moris Mashali as partner [...]
StanChart cuts 4,000 jobs in savings drive January 8, 2015 STANDARD Chartered closed its cash equities business yesterday, cutting 200 jobs across the world. The British-headquartered emerging markets bank has now cut 2,000 jobs and expects to cut another 2,000 this year, as it restructures its business to save money and shore up profits. StanChart expects to achieve most of this by not replacing staff when [...]
Rock bottom rates might not rise until 2016 January 8, 2015 POLICY makers at the Bank of England kept interest rates at 0.5 per cent yesterday. The decision was widely expected as inflation is expected to fall further below the Bank’s two per cent target over the next few months. In December, inflation as measured by the annual change in the consumer price index was one [...]
Analyst Views: What was your reaction to Boohoo’s trading update? January 7, 2015 ALISTAIR DAVIES | INVESTEC Boohoo’s statement highlighted a competitive and challenging UK market, resulting in slower-than-anticipated sales growth. International saw an encouraging rebound in ROW, reflecting benefits from price reinvestment, with Europe delivering mixed results. Lower sales growth… led us to cut our forecasts materially. MATTHEW MCEACHRAN | N+1 SINGER Boohoo has delivered 25 per [...]
City Moves for 08 January 2015 | Who’s switching jobs January 7, 2015 Investec The bank’s corporate and institutional banking division has announced the appointment of Florian von Hartig as head of debt capital markets. He joins after nine years at Standard Bank, where he was global head of debt primary markets. JLL UK The real estate-focused professional services and investment management firm has appointed two new sustainability [...]