Investec bags Evo in time for Christmas December 22, 2011 INVESTEC formally closed its deal to buy British investment bank Evolution Group yesterday, following its final decision on lay-offs across both companies. Investec won its bid battle in August when it settled on a price of £233m all in shares, a premium of 28 per cent on Evolution’s share price the day before it disclosed [...]
UK growth rate revised upwards December 22, 2011 UK GDP growth has been revised up to 0.6 per cent from 0.5 per cent. The annual rate of growth remained unrevised at 0.5 per cent, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Analysts said Thursday’s figures did not change their view that the economy was set for a sharp slowdown due [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: CAN THORNTONS SURVIVE IN THE TOUGH RETAIL CLIMATE? December 21, 2011 DAVID JEARY | INVESTEC We infer… a mixture of both sales and gross margin weakness has prompted the revised PBT guidance… We understand that covenants would not be breached at the projected level of guidance. AMISHA CHOHAH | MERCHANT SECURITIES The high gearing, with net debt of £24.5m in 2011 and set to grow further, [...]
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 [...]