City Moves for 16 April 2015 | Who’s switching jobs April 15, 2015 Ashurst The law firm has appointed Sarah Morton-Ramwell as global pro bono partner. She joins from Reed Smith, where she was responsible for its pro bono and corporate responsibility projects in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Old Mutual Global Investors The asset management firm has appointed David Cameron-Mowat as UK equity analyst. He joins [...]
Early Easter helps lift retail sales out of the doldrums in March April 13, 2015 A PICK-UP in the grocery market together with the earlier timing of Easter this year helped boost retail sales in March. Data out today from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG show retail sales increased by 3.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis in March compared with the same month last year when they fell [...]
Wage increases gather pace as recruiters battle skills shortage April 9, 2015 Salaries for new staff rose at their fastest pace in six month in March, recruiters said today, as diving unemployment combined with strong growth to push up pay. Finance workers and engineers are in the highest demand, closely followed by executive staff. The study from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG found that almost [...]
Best month of car sales this century April 8, 2015 Nearly half a million new cars rolled on to Britain’s roads in March, the best month for new car registrations since 1999. Consumers and firms registered 492,774 new cars in March, up six per cent on the same month last year, according to figures released yesterday by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). [...]
KPMG tells banks – Slash costs to get back to healthy profits April 7, 2015 Britain’s big banks must slash their bloated cost bases if they are ever to return to sustainable profitability, analysts at KPMG warned today. The largest lenders are all struggling to make steady returns. Despite improvements in profits last year, none of the big five made returns on equity of above eight per cent. That is [...]
City Moves for 07 April 2015 | Who’s switching jobs April 6, 2015 EMW The commercial law firm has announced several appointments. Caroline Hayward (pictured) and Robin Creek become principals in its real estate team. They both joined EMW from Harvey Ingram Borneos in 2012. Gurpreet Sanghera becomes a principal in its corporate team. In addition, Matthew Holman becomes an associate in the law firm’s commercial team, and [...]
TV leaders’ debate: Rise of smaller parties “unnerving development for the markets” April 3, 2015 The strong showing from the smaller parties in last night's leaders' debate could add to market jitters over the unpredictable result of the General Election. Markets could become increasingly anxious as the polls continue to indicate there will be no clear winner come polling day. Nick Beecroft, senior market analyst at Saxo Bank, explaining the consequences of [...]
From the leaders debate to the Holborn fire: Here’s what got us talking this week April 2, 2015 There was a fire. Then there was another fire. And in Salford, there were fireworks (or was it a damp squib?). Considering it was a short week, plenty happened. Here's what got us talking. 1. And they were off. It may feel like they've been at it for weeks, but Monday was officially the [...]
Can these Leeds United fans save English football’s sleeping giant? April 2, 2015 “The response so far has been fantastic; we’re aiming to be the largest UK fan fundraise that there’s ever been – I think we’ve got a good chance of achieving that.” These were the words of Brendan Meehan, former partner at KPMG and current finance and legal executive at Leeds Fans Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) [...]
Largest NHS privatisation comes to an end March 31, 2015 Sarah Spickernell asks why the NHS’ deal with Circle Healthcare flatlined Yesterday, the NHS’ biggest privatisation experiment came to an expensive end. Circle Healthcare, which was chosen by the government three years ago to turn around the troubled Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire, is abandoning the project seven years early, leaving behind a deficit of between [...]