End the stigma that surrounds stress in the City November 7, 2011 LLOYDS Banking Group has announced that Antonio Horta-Osorio is expected to return before the end of the year, but City sources have been saying there is no way that he will be able to come back as chief executive after taking time off for physical and mental exhaustion. The persistent stigma is that after any [...]
Probes start into MF Global client funds November 3, 2011 US regulators are launching a broad review into the business practices of failed futures brokerage MF Global as their hunt continues for over $600m (£375m) in missing customer money. Round-the-clock shifts for examiners have become the norm as they sort through the collapse of the firm headed by Jon Corzine. The head of the US [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 2, 2011 Brookfield Asset Management The property, renewable power and infrastructure asset manager has appointed Julian Schiller as senior vice president in the global private funds group in London. He will look after European and Middle Eastern investors and assist in broader business development for the real estate group, working alongside Barry Blattman and Martin Jepson. Schiiler [...]
Client money not separated at MF Global November 1, 2011 BANKRUPT US broker MF Global flouted rules on keeping client and company funds in separate accounts, the head of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange claimed yesterday. Under rules set by the CME and the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), companies must hold client assets separately from those belonging to the company, but the exchange said preliminary [...]
Markets hit by MF Global bankruptcy October 31, 2011 MARKETS plunged in London and New York yesterday as MF Global, the $41bn brokerage, became the first big American casualty of the European sovereign debt crisis. MF Global Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US following the collapse of a last-minute deal to sell off assets. It became the eighth-largest bankruptcy in [...]
John Lovering returns to fashion chain Peacocks October 27, 2011 RETAIL veteran John Lovering has returned to the board of the investment group that owns Peacocks, the struggling fashion chain he chaired for six years until 2003, City A.M can reveal. Last month the British high street retailer, which sells discount fashion lines, called in KPMG to conduct an independent business review as fears grow [...]
Crisis grows as FBI probe hits Olympus October 24, 2011 JUST when it looked like things could not get any worse for stricken camera-maker Olympus, its shares were rocked again by news the FBI will probe its controversial advisory payments. Its stock tumbled a further 11.5 per cent in trading yesterday to hit ¥1,099 – a 55 per cent fall in the space of just two [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 24, 2011 Genzyme David Meeker has been appointed as chief executive of Genzyme, part of the wider Sanofi healthcare group, effective from 1 November. He will also join the group management committee. Meeker joined Genzyme in 1994 as medical director to work on the cystic fibrosis gene therapy programme. Rising to the position of president of the [...]
Auditors quit over Olympus payments October 23, 2011 KPMG, the auditors of the British medical equipment company at the heart of the Olympus scandal, quit last year over a series of mysterious payments made to the Cayman Islands. Last week, Olympus’ former chief executive turned whistleblower Michael Woodford sent the technology firm’s share price plummeting after claiming he was fired after questioning $1.3bn [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 23, 2011 Little Chef The roadside chain has appointed Graham Sims as its new chairman. Sims is currently chief executive of Qunatilis, a non-executive board member at the UK Border Agency, and chairman of Kensington Consultancy Group. Earlier in his career, he spent seven years at BP, rising from operations manager for Portugal to UK retail managing [...]