Snow slashes his £2.6m Evo share award September 16, 2011 ALEX Snow, chief executive of investment manager Evolution Group, has slashed a generous award of share options allocated to him just days before sale talks became public. Snow asked Evolution’s remuneration committee to reduce a gift of shares granted to him under its executive share incentive plan from 2m to just 1.29m after it swiftly [...]
Public sector jobs slashed at record rate September 14, 2011 NEW jobs in the private sector failed to offset major declines in state sector employment in the second quarter of the year, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed yesterday. With chancellor George Osborne’s austerity plans beginning to kick in, government roles were down by 111,000 in the three months to June — [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS September 13, 2011 CENTRICA Morgan Stanley rates the utilities company as “overweight” and sets a target price of 360p, saying that developments at British Gas in UK upstream gas and power assets are underappreciated. The broker says Centrica will grow at seven per cent per year, even in an economic slowdown, or 15 per cent if it uses [...]
Asset manager list shows who is best in class September 11, 2011 A NEW list of the top young asset managers has highlighted the growing importance of emerging markets. More than a quarter of the young asset managers who made the Financial News “40 under 40” list either invest directly in emerging markets or have spent time working or researching in developing countries. The list also reflects [...]
Investec buys Evolution Group for £233m September 9, 2011 South African banking group Investec has tabled a recommended offer for broking and wealth management group Evolution that values the group at £233m. Investec, which had been competing against Canadian group Canaccord Financial for Evolution, said would pay 100.24p per share, a 6.6 per cent premium on yesterday’s closing price – but almost a 45 [...]
Investec set to unveil Evo takeover deal September 8, 2011 EVOLUTION Group hopes to announce as soon as today that Anglo-South African bank Investec has won the race to take over the financial group for around £220m. Investec is thought to be paying more than 100p a share to buy the business. Talk of an imminent deal was enough to boost Evolution’s shares three per [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: ARE THINGS LOOKING UP FOR HOME RETAIL GROUP? September 8, 2011 DAVID JEARY | INVESTEC Our initial estimates suggest that Argos is likely to make a small operating loss in the first-half. This is certainly not conducive to more positive sentiment and the debate on its weak performance… will not therefore abate. PHILIP DORGAN | PANMURE GORDON It looks likely that group profits will fall for [...]
Smartphone demand boosts parts maker IQE September 7, 2011 IQE, a supplier of materials for semiconductors, has posted a 28 per cent rise in first-half profit due to surging demand for smartphones, its most important end-market. IQE posted pre-tax profit of £2.8m on revenue up 16 per cent to £38.3m, and said it was on track to meet full-year expectations. Chief executive Drew Nelson [...]
Fenner predicts a year of big growth September 6, 2011 INDUSTRIAL conveyor belt maker Fenner forecast full-year results ahead of market expectations after strong trading in its fourth quarter. The firm said yesterday trading in the final quarter to 31 August had been particularly robust in both the conveyor belting and advanced engineering products divisions. Fenner said it would end the year with net debt [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 6, 2011 Emap International Duncan Painter has been appointed as chief executive of the publisher and events business to replace David Gilbertson, who stepped down in May. Painter is currently managing director of the BSkyB subsidiary Sky IQ, which provides customer intelligence services to BSkyB and FTSE 100 firms including Centrica and Zurich Financial Services. Previous roles [...]