City cheers as economy rebounds March 3, 2010 RELIEF trickled through global markets yesterday as a series of polls showed the strongest growth in the services sector since the financial crisis began, fuelling hopes of recovery. Shares rose on both sides of the Atlantic after the UK service purchasing managers survey surprised analysts by jumping 3.9 points to 58.4 for February – its [...]
Bridgepoint snaps up health and social care firm Care UK for £281m in cash March 3, 2010 PRIVATE equity group Bridgepoint Capital yesterday unveiled a recommended cash bid for elderly and health care provider Care UK, valuing the company at £281m. Bridgepoint, which launched the bid through newly-created vehicle Warwick Bidco, is offering 450p for each Care UK share, a 9.2 per cent premium to the share price at the close of [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 2, 2010 Jupiter Asset Management The asset manager has appointed John Tevenan as a sales director in its global financial institutions group, responsible for developing relationships among global wealth management businesses. Tevenan joins in May and is currently UK sales director at Investec Asset Management, where he has worked since 2005. He has also held roles at [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 22, 2010 INVESTEC Numis is bullish on the South African bank, claiming its well capitalised, highly liquid balance sheet will allow it strong growth opportunities in specialist high margin assets while its larger peers rebuild and focus on their standardised lending core. The broker considers the bank to be low-risk and raised its rating to “Buy”. THORNTONS [...]
ECONOMIST VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU THINK HAS CONTRIBUTED TO A RISE IN GDP? February 22, 2010 JONATHAN LOYNES | CAPITAL ECONOMICS “The breakdown looks set to reveal a weak contribution from household spending after the slowdown in retail sales growth in the fourth quarter. With net trade also weak, stockbuilding, investment and government spending may have driven the exit from recession.” PHILIP SHAW | INVESTEC “ONS figures showed industrial production rising [...]
Halfords buys car company February 18, 2010 CAR and bike accessories retailer Halfords said yesterday it was expanding into the car servicing market after buying Nationwide Autocentres for £73.2m. The company said the “Halfords Autocentre” business would be a major source of growth for the firm. In addition to Nationwide’s existing 224 sites, it is expected that Halfords will open 200 new [...]
Unemployment dips but claimants surge February 17, 2010 UNEMPLOYMENT has fallen slightly but the number of benefits claimants has gone up, official figures have shown. Total unemployment stood at 2.46m for the three months to December, down 3,000 on the figure for the previous quarter. The rate of unemployment was unchanged at 7.8 per cent, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said yesterday. [...]
Good day for blue-chips sees FTSE flirt with the 5,300 level February 17, 2010 Britain’s top share index rose for the third consecutive day yesterday, led by financials and miners on bullish corporate results and economic data, and adding to growing optimism over the health of the global economy. The FTSE 100 ended up 32.58 points, or 0.6 per cent at 5,276.64, touching a two-week high during the session [...]
UK inflation surges to 14-month high February 16, 2010 Bank of England governor Mervyn King was forced to write his sixth explanatory letter to the chancellor yesterday after inflation hit a 14-month high of 3.5 per cent in January. The surge in the annual inflation rate, from 2.9 per cent in December, was caused by last year’s emergency VAT cut being reversed and higher [...]
ECONOMIST VIEWS: WHERE DO YOU THINK INFLATION IS HEADING LATER THIS YEAR? February 16, 2010 PHILIP SHAW | INVESTEC We are not especially fazed by the jump in inflation this month. There are clearly special factors involved. It is important to note that wage growth is very restrained and various measures of inflation expectations remain well behaved. The likelihood is that the UK is undergoing a period of inflation volatility. [...]