BEST OF THE BROKERS October 31, 2011 INVESTEC Goldman Sachs rates Investec “buy” with a 533p target price as it believes the wealth management group has been unjustifiably hurt by risk aversion, despite shifting its business model towards asset and wealth management, which give it more stable income streams and now constitute about half its revenues. About 70 per cent of its [...]
Draghi’s rein at ECB marks the start of new era October 30, 2011 YOU may have missed it if you were busy stressing over Greece and the European debt crisis. So let me just flesh it out. The month of October has been unbelievably bullish for stocks regardless of the mess that Europe still finds itself in and the recession worries everyone keeps talking about. In the US, [...]
Life insurers to see sales fall on tough economy October 30, 2011 ECONOMIC gloom and a tough three months for financial markets are expected to take their toll on life insurers’ third-quarter sales figures due in the coming weeks, analysts said yesterday. Only a few insurers with a foothold in popular niche markets are expected to outperform, but these will see double-digit sales increases, they said. “Figures [...]
Investec bid for Evolution gets yes vote October 27, 2011 SHAREHOLDERS of broker-turned-wealth manager Evolution Group voted firmly in favour of its sale to South African investment group Investec yesterday despite concerns over the real price of the deal. Nearly 95 per cent of shareholders that chose to vote gave the takeover the green light, despite a ten per cent drop in the value of [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: IS BAT ABLE TO BUILD ON IMPROVING SALES? October 26, 2011 MARTIN DEBOO | INVESTEC These figures are quite strong and show the defensive qualities of the stock. There is pricing strength in the tobacco industry and volumes and margins are improving. BAT is in line with Philip Morris but pulling ahead of Imperial Tobacco. TINA COOK | CHARLES STANLEY BAT has released a reassuring quarter [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 25, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES SHAREHOLDERS IN EVOLUTION BACK BID BY INVESTEC Investec’s £202m takeover of Evolution Group will go ahead despite last-minute resistance from Evolution’s biggest shareholder after the broker’s other big investor backed the bid. Aberforth Partners, which owns 10.8 per cent of Evolution, said last week it had withdrawn its support for the all-share offer [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: DO BP’S RESULTS SIGNAL A TURNING POINT FOR THE FIRM? October 25, 2011 STUART JOYNER | INVESTEC BP is still bumping along the bottom but as we expected, the divestment target has been increased to $45bn and the chief executive sees 50 per cent cashflow growth by 2014.. With Anadarko settling its spill bill a few weeks ago, we are seeing a more confident message from BP on [...]
EU summit optimism won’t last for long October 25, 2011 FOREX conditions are choppy for euro traders, with yesterday’s moves indicative of the jittery markets. Upon the news that the Ecofin conference won’t take place, euro-dollar quickly dropped 0.6 per cent. Twitter feeds across the world were swamped with presumptions that the full emergency heads-of-government summit was also cancelled. Euro-dollar rebounded, as it became clear [...]
ECONOMISTS’ VIEWS: HAS CHINA’S ECONOMY AVOIDED A HARD LANDING? October 24, 2011 QINWEI WANG | CAPITAL ECONOMICS At 51.1, this month’s PMI estimate is very strong. There are risks ahead, however – Eurozone figures are very disappointing. Furthermore, China’s PMI may reflect output rising simply to replenish and increase inventories, which have been very low recently, rather than signaling strong demand growth. CHRIS SCICLUNA | DAIWA CAPITAL [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 24, 2011 Genzyme David Meeker has been appointed as chief executive of Genzyme, part of the wider Sanofi healthcare group, effective from 1 November. He will also join the group management committee. Meeker joined Genzyme in 1994 as medical director to work on the cystic fibrosis gene therapy programme. Rising to the position of president of the [...]