Tech sector ends 2013 on a high January 27, 2014 The UK tech sector saw the steepest expansion of business activity for almost a decade during the last quarter of 2013, according to the latest KPMG/Markit Tech Monitor UK report. In December, the index measuring UK tech sector business activity posted above the 50 no-change threshold for the sixteenth month with a healthy score of [...]
Standard Chartered chooses to keep KPMG as its audit provider January 27, 2014 STANDARD Chartered will keep KPMG as its auditor after hearing pitches for the contract from other so-called Big Four accountants. The bank, which put its audit contract out to tender in August, is expected to reconfirm KPMG in the post in its annual report in spring. KPMG has checked StanChart’s books for around 40 years. [...]
City Moves for 28 January 2014 | Who’s switching jobs January 27, 2014 Salamanca Group The merchant banking and operational risk management firm has announced the appointment of Martin Devenish as group head of strategy. He previously spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner and advisory director. KPMG The professional services firm has hired Nick Roome as a partner to lead its legal services [...]
Big data next challenge for execs January 26, 2014 Boardrooms and senior executives are increasingly overwhelmed with data that they have no idea how to analyse, according to a report from KPMG. Some 85 per cent of finance and information chiefs from large multi-national firms with annual revenues of over £600m said that they do not know how to analyse the data they collect. [...]
How to grow a business from a bean January 26, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks student life and staple diets with James Eder, founder of marketing firm The Beans Group IN THE age-old debate over whether entrepreneurship is innate or can be taught, James Eder – founder of The Beans Group – makes a strong case for the former. At 13, he and his brother Michael created [...]
US judge bars Big Four China units January 23, 2014 CHINESE units of the global Big Four accounting firms should be suspended from auditing US-listed companies for six months, a judge in the United States ruled, in an escalation in a long-running dispute over regulators’ access to documents. In a harshly worded 112-page ruling, Securities and Exchange Commission administrative law Judge Cameron Elliot censured the [...]
City Moves for 24 January 2014 | Who’s switching jobs January 23, 2014 SEI The investment management firm has announced the appointment of Brett Williams as UK managing director of its wealth platform. He joins from LW2 Private Equity Partnership, where he was a partner. Prior to that, he held senior roles at Cofunds, Selestia and Skandia UK. PwC The professional services firm has appointed Philip Smith to its [...]
Quercus puts itself up for sale as losses mount January 22, 2014 QUERCUS, the independent publisher behind Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, yesterday unexpectedly announced that it is up for sale. In a surprise stock market announcement, the Baker Street-based firm said that it had appointed mergers and acquisitions specialists Livingstone Partners to advise on the sale process. The firm said it believed it was “in the [...]
City Moves for 23 January 2014 | Who’s switching jobs January 22, 2014 Legal & General Martin Brookes has joined Legal & General Capital as director of investment strategy. He previously spent 27 years at the Prudential, where he was most recently director of portfolio management in its portfolio management group. KPMG The professional services firm has appointed Victor Abrams as a special adviser in its tax value chain management [...]
Morrisons’ tax boss arrested in watchdog probe January 20, 2014 MORRISONS’ treasurer and head of tax is under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for insider trading ahead of its £216m tie-up with Ocado last year, in yet another blow for the troubled supermarket. Paul Coyle was suspended from his post after being arrested in December in Harrogate by the Yorkshire police in connection [...]