Best of the Brokers February 5, 2013 SMITH & NEPHEW Panmure Gordon has downgraded the medical technology firm from “buy” to “hold” rating reflecting a recent rise in the share price, and raises its target to 720p. “We cannot imagine the outlook statement as strong as consensus implies,” the broker says ahead of the firm’s annual results on Thursday. However, Panmure maintains [...]
Fresh scandal to cost banks £2bn January 31, 2013 THE FINANCE watchdog yesterday opened the floodgates to tens of thousands of compensation claims from small firms who may have been missold interest-rate fixing products, representing another major headache for the scandal-struck industry. The four biggest banks will now review the 40,000 interest rate swap transactions made since 2001 in a bid to identify any [...]
Halfords appoints JP Morgan January 31, 2013 Bicycle and car parts retailer Halfords yesterday appointed JP Morgan Cazenove as its joint corporate broker alongside Investec Bank. JP Morgan Cazenove replaces Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which helped list Halfords in 2004. JP Morgan Cazenove’s covering of Halfords will be led by head of UK investment banking Laurence Hollingworth, and Luke Bordewich, executive [...]
Investec trumps rand weakness to increase its income for 2012 January 31, 2013 INVESTEC, the South African money manager, yesterday said it overcame a weaker rand to increase annual operating income by one per cent in the nine months ending December 2012. The dual listed company, which trades in London and Johannesburg, posted the increase, net of depreciation on operating leased assets, despite a 13 per cent slide [...]
Seymour Pierce is latest broker to search for fresh investment January 29, 2013 SMALL-CAP brokerage and investment bank Seymour Pierce is talking to potential investors about injecting cash into the firm, according to sources in the industry. Seymour Pierce, which has around 70 clients on the main and junior stock markets, is believed to be in discussions with a number of parties about a possible investment. Rival company [...]
FTSE breaks 6,300 mark – as sterling slides to deeper lows January 28, 2013 THE FTSE100 index rose through the 6,300 barrier to a 56-month high during yesterday’s trading, just as sterling dived to a 13-month low against the euro, and a five-month low versus the dollar. The index closed up 9.96 points – 0.2 per cent – at 6,294.4, with more than half of that coming from a [...]
Premier Foods’ shares tumble as chief resigns January 28, 2013 SHARES in the company behind Hovis bread and Mr Kipling cakes tumbled yesterday after its chief executive quit after just 18 months at the helm. Premier Foods said Michael Clarke, who joined from Kraft Foods in September 2011, had indicated to the board over Christmas he was considering moving on “to pursue other business opportunities”. [...]
Canadians buy landmark City site for £265m January 28, 2013 CANADA’S second largest pension fund has teamed up with private equity firm TPG to buy a landmark office building in the City for £265m. Ivanhoé Cambridge, the property investment arm of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, said yesterday it has jointly bought the Woolgate Exchange in Moorgate as it steps up its investment [...]
Analyst Views | What did you think of Aveva’s interim statement? January 28, 2013 JULIAN YATES INVESTEC Russia, India and Europe are strong, China is recovering, Brazil is still weak and the net update is positive. This is not enough to take the shares higher on a near-term basis. However the long term prospects of E3D look very compelling. We retain “Buy” and upgrade target price to 2,450p. GEORGE [...]
The failure of QE isn’t an excuse for further Bank of England experiments January 28, 2013 QUANTITATIVE easing (QE) is like macroeconomic doping. America is like Lance Armstrong.” Or so a British journalist overheard at Davos. Relative to the size of the economy, of course, the UK is a more likely Armstrong than the US. Central bank asset purchases here have been about 25 per cent of GDP, compared to less [...]