City’s brightest named in legal hot 100 line-up January 28, 2013 SOME of the City’s top lawyers have been named on the industry’s annual Hot 100 list, including the silk helping Guardian Care Homes pursue Barclays for Libor-related mis-selling and the partner leading Co-op through its bid for Lloyds bank branches. The Lawyer magazine’s 2013 list, released yesterday, singles out 100 legal names to watch this [...]
City Moves for 24 January 2013 | Who’s switching jobs January 23, 2013 Lloyds Commercial Banking Anthony Williams has been appointed head of consumer services and entrepreneurs at Lloyds. He joins from Westhouse Securities, the advisory firm. Williams has over 25 years’ experience in banking, and has also held roles at ABN Amro/RBS, most recently as head of consumer sector advisory. Altius Associates Joachim Suter has been appointed [...]
Hilco snaps up HMV debt pile to take control January 22, 2013 HMV was given a potential lifeline yesterday after restructuring firm Hilco bought the crisis-hit music retailer’s debt for about £40m, effectively giving it control of the group. Hilco – which already owns HMV Canada – confirmed yesterday it had acquired HMV’s debt from the group’s consortium of lenders led by the Royal Bank of Scotland [...]
Audit watchdog hikes business levy by 8.5pc January 22, 2013 THE UK’S audit watchdog has announced plans to hike levy rates by 8.5 per cent. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC)’s move was criticised by firms yesterday but the regulator said the increase was necessary as it attempts to clear a backlog of cases and deals with extra regulation. The FRC is upping its budget by 10 [...]
Bankers leave glamorous jobs for compliance roles January 21, 2013 BANKERS are retraining in compliance in unprecedented numbers either to change career as their traditional jobs are cut, or to make sure they are well prepared to cope with tough new regulations, according to figures seen by City A.M. The City has lost over 100,000 jobs since the start of the financial crisis as banks [...]
UK car exports hit record high January 17, 2013 THE UK exported more cars than ever before in 2012, figures revealed yesterday, providing a much-needed boost for the country’s manufacturing sector. British factories made 1.46m cars last year, a rise of nine per cent and the highest number since 2007 – and experts predict further growth in the years ahead, Of these, 1.21m were sold [...]
Big four make up lion’s share of £11bn accountancy fee income January 17, 2013 FEE income at Britain’s 60 biggest accountancy firms totalled almost £11bn last year, as the biggest firms gained work in consulting and corporate finance while the mid-tier firms fought to grow. The big four professional services firms – PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and KPMG – made up £8.35bn of the top 60 firms’ earnings, [...]
Social mobility is a problem for British business to resolve January 14, 2013 ECONOMISTS tell us that the worst may be over. After a double-dip recession, unemployment is dropping, the FTSE has made a confident start to the year, banks are showing an increased willingness to lend, there are indications of life in the housing market, and there are some signs of growth. But even the most optimistic [...]
Brown calls for speedy restart of rail contracts January 10, 2013 A REVIEW commissioned in the wake of the West Coast franchising fiasco has called for changes to the bidding process, including a hiring drive to bring more experienced staff into the Department for Transport. Former Eurostar boss Richard Brown used his report, published yesterday, to call for passenger satisfaction to be taken into account when [...]
Luxury cars still selling fast in new markets January 10, 2013 BMW and Audi both posted record-breaking annual sales yesterday as demand for high-end marques in emerging markets continued to drive growth. Germany’s BMW reported sales of 1.845m vehicles in the year, a rise of 10.6 per cent. All three of its brands – BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce – delivered increases during the year. Rolls-Royce enjoyed [...]