MF Global row drags in banks November 20, 2011 TWO American pension funds have launched legal action against seven banks, claiming they concealed problems over MF Global’s $6.3bn (£3.99bn) exposure to European sovereign debt. Royal Bank of Scotland, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, as well as former MF Global boss Jon Corzine, are among those named in the suit. The registration statements and [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 20, 2011 Kingfisher The home improvement retailer has appointed Mark Seligman, the former European chairman and chairman of UK investment banking at Credit Suisse, as a senior independent director, effective from 1 January 2012. Seligman will step down from his role as a senior adviser at Credit Suisse at the end of the year. He is also [...]
EU probe into auditors set to be delayed November 17, 2011 MICHEL Barnier, the European commissioner, is widely expected to postpone the publication of draft legislation designed to clamp down on the market dominance of the “big four” accountancy firms next week. Barnier was planning to propose controversial changes to auditing rules to prevent potential conflicts of interest and boost competition. But the draft regulations are [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 16, 2011 Akin Gump Vlad Sourkov has joined Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld as a partner and head of the firm’s Russian real estate practice. He joins the law firm from CMS Russia, where he was head of the firm’s real estate practice. Other members of his team are expected to join Akin Gump in Moscow [...]
Sales are strong at Asda but high fuel costs keeping shoppers away November 15, 2011 SUPERMARKET group Asda yesterday reported a pick up in third-quarter sales growth, helped by revamped own-brand food ranges and a pledge to be cheaper than rivals. Sales at stores open more than a year rose 1.3 per cent, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, in the three months to September, Britain’s second-biggest supermarket group said [...]
BANKER GETS MORE BANGS FOR HIS BUCKS AT MAYOR’S SHOW WEDDING November 13, 2011 NO NEWS is good news, says the City of London Corporation, which yesterday breathed a sigh of relief after the St Paul’s protesters decided to respect the fact the Lord Mayor’s Show is a “community event”. “There was no disruption, not even shouting,” said a City of London spokesperson on Saturday’s “walking, marching pageant of [...]
Culpable execs must be sued, Olympus is told November 10, 2011 A JAPANESE shareholder in Japan’s Olympus has asked the camera-to-medical-equipment maker to sue 21 former and current executives if it finds they violated their duties in connection with acquisition deals at the centre of a governance scandal. In a letter the shareholder asked the company’s auditors to seek repayment of 139.42bn yen (£1.13bn) plus interest [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 10, 2011 Sciens Sciens Fund of Funds Management Holdings has appointed Alex Allen as senior portfolio manager in Sciens’ fund of hedge funds business. Based in the London office, he will report to Stavros Siokos, president of the Sciens fund of hedge funds and managed account platform businesses. Prior to joining Sciens, Allen was a co-founder and [...]
Demand for permanent staff declines as Britain’s economic outlook worsens November 8, 2011 EMPLOYERS are increasingly reluctant to take on permanent staff, preferring temporary contracts because they are uncertain about the strength of the economy, a report published today from KPMG reveals. Permanent placements fell for the first time in two years in October. The survey’s index now stands at 49.7, down from 51.2 in September and 52.4 [...]
MF Global clients set for further delay as empire’s sell-off begins November 7, 2011 NEARLY two-thirds of positions from the British unit of MF Global were still open yesterday, a week after it filed for bankruptcy protection, sparking frustration about delays in moving business to new brokers. UK administrators KPMG said 954,000 positions were open out of the 1.6m in place when MF Global Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection [...]