City redundancies are sent via text message at 4am December 20, 2011 DOZENS of bankers might have wished for a seasonal lump of coal for Christmas yesterday: instead they received a handy text message telling them that their job no longer exists. Investec laid off 90 of its front-office staff before dawn, with those who had opted into the text alert system receiving an SMS at 4.30am [...]
Banks hit by Vickers as North Korean leader dies December 19, 2011 The FTSE 100 was solid this morning but the festering Eurozone crisis continued to sap confidence in riskier assets and banks were down as the government confirmed that they would be hit with the full impact of the Vickers Report. But the agenda was dominated by the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, sparking [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 18, 2011 BP Evolution has maintained its “buy” recommendation on BP, after the oil giant settled its dispute with contractor Cameron over the Macondo accident – although its target price of 510p is at “the lower end” of a valuation range that scales to 771p/sh. Evolution also notes that BP is talking to Ophir Energy about farming [...]
Don’t let IPO row endanger London December 15, 2011 GRAFF Diamonds, one of the most famous jewellers in the world, is based in New Bond Street, Mayfair. Its headline web-page promotes London as a sign of its class. And yet its forthcoming flotation, in which it hopes to raise $1bn, is all going on in Hong Kong. There isn’t even a secondary listing in [...]
Canaccord in £253m Collins Stewart deal December 15, 2011 SHARES in finance group Collins Stewart Hawkpoint rocketed more than 75 per cent yesterday after it agreed a sale of the business to Canaccord Financial for £253.3m. The 96p per share cash and shares offer put the bid at a 90 per cent premium to Collins Stewart’s share price on Wednesday, and shareholders will also [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 15, 2011 CAIRN ENERGY Investec rates the energy explorer “hold” with a target price of 291p. Despite the “early Christmas present” of a 154p per share dividend in the wake of Cairn’s deal with Vedanta, the broker remains cautious about the firm’s prospects, pointing to a lack of success in Greenland and weak growth in India. Investec [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF LOGICA’S PLANS? December 14, 2011 JULIAN YATES | INVESTEC In light of the pressure the business was under at the H1 2011 results, we were expecting a restructuring, so today’s news is not a surprise, although the timing has come a little earlier than we would have anticipated. WILL WALLIS | NUMIS Given that Q411 will be around zero per [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 11, 2011 HAYS Shore Capital rates the recruitment group as a “hold” with a target price of 63p, but makes downgrades to its estimates, seeing exposure to Europe and high Australian conversion rates as negative pressures. The broker lowers its earnings per share forecasts for 2012, 2013 and 2014 by 4 per cent, 16.7 per cent and [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT WILL LIFE AFTER COMET BE LIKE FOR KESA? December 7, 2011 RICHARD HUNTER | HARGREAVES LANSDOWN The planned disposal of the UK Comet business will convert the company into a European, especially French, play and even here the previously promising development has weakened. The Comet disposal has also resulted in some notable impairment charges. There are some glimmers of hope. DAVID JEARY | INVESTEC The Comet [...]
Polymetal and Evraz join FTSE 100 December 7, 2011 Building materials group CRH, steel and mining company Evraz and precious metals producer Polymetal will be promoted to the FTSE 100 on 19 December as a result of this quarter’s stock exchange review. They will take the places of mobile satellite firm Inmarsat, asset manager Investec and platinum miner Lonmin. The reshuffle will also see [...]