Thumbs down for Greek rescue plan February 11, 2010 INITIAL City enthusiasm over an expected bailout for Greece quickly switched to disappointment yesterday as the 16 nations in the eurozone failed to come up with a solid rescue plan. The euro plunged almost one per cent against the dollar – at one stage breaching a fresh eight-month low –?and despite recovering slightly lost most [...]
Bank’s report likely to show inflation on up February 7, 2010 THE revival in economic growth will take longer while the pace of inflation is likely to accelerate further in the coming months. That, at least, is what economists expect from the Bank of England’s quarterly inflation report on Wednesday, when the central bank will issue fresh growth and inflation projections. After the Monetary Policy Committee [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 4, 2010 PARTYGAMING Barclays Capital ups PartyGaming to “overweight” citing its improved operational performance. Sets a target price of 330p, suggesting 15 per cent upside to the current share price. Says if recent speculation of a merger between PartyGaming and Bwin proves true the shares would gain 45-55 per cent from their current value. ROLLS ROYCE GROUP [...]
BACK TO THE GREEN HOUSE FOR DE BLONAY February 3, 2010 THE City’s resident “Swiss funds fox”, Guy de Blonay, has barely warmed up his seat after his high-profile return to fund management group Jupiter, but already things are settling comfortably back into their old ways. De Blonay officially took up his new position at the group a week ago, after leaving his first job at [...]
Hampson looks to raise £60m February 2, 2010 Aerospace and automotive manufacturing group Hampson Industries yesterday announced a proposal to raise £59.5m via a share placing and open offer to reduce net debt and revamp the group’s financial structure. Over 119m new ordinary shares will be on the table at a share price of 50p which represents a 22.8 per cent discount to [...]
IT’S DOG EAT DOG AMONG TOP RETAIL BANKERS February 1, 2010 IF THE government wants more competition in the retail banking sector, it’s more competition it’s gonna get. Hot on the heels of yesterday’s heart-warming tale about new High Street lender Metro Bank planning to welcome dogs into branches – and offer them free bowls of water and chewy bones – comes a response from Metro’s [...]
Bank may call time on its QE programme January 31, 2010 THE Bank of England is this week expected to turn off the stimulus taps and bring its unprecedented £200bn quantitative easing programme to an end when the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets later this week. The central bank has been injecting money into the UK economy from last March and has so far bought almost [...]
WHAT DOES THE FED’S RATES DECISION MEAN FOR THE US POLICY OUTLOOK? January 28, 2010 BRIAN FABBRI | BNP PARIBAS While the FOMC left the federal funds rate at 0–0.25 per cent, this was the first time since emergency conditions were set in place that a formal dissent has been made. Moreover, the text exposed important nods in the direction of a more confident view of the economic recovery than [...]
Sportech pays £51.4m for US sports betting business January 27, 2010 POOLS operator Sportech is buying racing and venue management business SGR from US group Scientific Games Corp for up to $83m (£51.3m) in cash and shares to become a world leader in pools betting. Sportech said yesterday it would pay an initial $65m, followed by $10m on 30 September 2013 and up to $8m if [...]
WH Smith is still upbeat in spite of drop in sales January 27, 2010 WH SMITH yesterday reported a four per cent drop in group like-for-like sales as customers bought fewer books. The figures for the 21 weeks to last weekend showed that the retailer’s High Street stores saw a comparative sales fall of five per cent while sales at its travel-based outlets dipped by two per cent. WH [...]