One door closes, while others open – Editor’s letter October 21, 2014 Investment bankers are a bit like accountants. They see opportunities from every eventuality. Accountants thrive in the good times and the bad, with the big firms’ restructuring departments jumping into action when the economy turns sour. Yesterday as BCA Marketplace, owner of the webuyanycar.com website, pulled its stock market flotation in London, I asked one [...]
City Moves for 20 October 2014 | Who’s switching jobs October 19, 2014 Secure Trust Bank The bank, a subsidiary of Arbuthnot Banking Group, has appointed Neil Clinton as regional sales director. He joins from Barclays, where he was head of its UK large corporate asset based lending team. Clinton has over 30 years’ experience in banking and invoice finance. Investec Wealth & Investment The wealth management firm [...]
Analyst Views: What did you make of BSkyb’s first quarter financial results? October 16, 2014 STEVE LIECHTI | INVESTEC First quarter figures are good, with better profit growth than we expected and confident overall trading comment. We remain neutral/mildly negative given competitive pressures in UK pay TV and some uncertainty over how the new Sky Europe plays out, particularly in Italy. PAUL RICHARDS | NUMIS The operational highlight was the [...]
City Moves for 16 October 2014 | Who’s switching jobs October 15, 2014 Investec Specialist Bank Christian Hess has been appointed head of the bank’s newly created financial sponsor transaction group within its investment banking business. He was previously a partner at Compass Partners International, founded Hess & Co Capital Advisors, and has also held senior roles at UBS. Mobius Life The life insurance and institutional investment platform [...]
Sluggish wage growth gives Bank of England a tough choice over interest rates October 15, 2014 Unemployment rate: down. Wages: up a tiny bit. How does this affect the Bank of England's plans for interest rates? At six per cent, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the unemployment rate is looking healthier by the month. It’s comparable to the US rate (5.9 per cent) and far lower [...]
Investec banker brushes off “complete criminals” insult from PR guru Lord Bell October 14, 2014 A Senior Investec banker last night shrugged off insults made last week by PR guru Lord Bell. Bell, who counts Investec among his firm Bell Pottinger’s clients, claimed bankers were “complete criminals”. But Investec’s head of investment banking Andrew Pinder is happy to move on, simply referring to the comments as “an interesting view”. “He [...]
Boohoo claims credit for online market success October 14, 2014 BOOHOO co-chief executive Carol Kane said the online fashion retailer’s success and recent IPO had acted as a wake-up call for other high street stores to improve their own online businesses, as it posted a jump in sales yesterday. Boohoo made its successful debut on Aim in March, with a market value of £560m, just [...]
City Moves for 15 October 2014 | Who’s switching jobs October 14, 2014 Quinn Emanuel Boris Bronfentrinker has been appointed partner in the law firm’s London office. He joins from claimant competition litigation firm Hausfeld & Co, where he was a partner. Bronfentrinker has also previously worked in Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer’s competition practice. Capital Generation Partners Cliff Wood has been appointed head of reporting and investment analytics at [...]
Synergy Health share price soars as US rival Steris reignites tax inversion debate with $1.9bn deal October 13, 2014 US medical technology giant Steris yesterday announced it had bought British health services provider Synergy Health in a $1.9bn (£1.2bn) deal that re-opened the US tax inversion debate. Steris said it would buy Synergy, whose shares rocketed by more than 30 per cent yesterday, in a cash-plus-shares deal that would shift its domicile to [...]
Shares down at industrials after Investec downgrades 15 firms October 13, 2014 INVESTEC sent share prices tumbling yesterday after it downgraded several UK industrials companies yesterday, blaming the deteriorating economic environment in Europe. The bank said that in light of recent profit warnings in the industrials sector, it had identified vulnerable companies, downgrading 15 of the most affected. Investec said it had focused on those with “significant [...]