Threshers fails in sell-off as creditors left high and dry November 8, 2010 FEWER than a third of Threshers stores have reopened as off-licences after the chain folded last year, administrators revealed yesterday. Only 400 of the firm’s 1,400 stores were sold, with most being bought by small off-licence chains, said accountancy firm KPMG which is still working on the administration. The other 1,000 were returned to landlords. [...]
Connaught debt to reach £100m after bills found November 7, 2010 Collapsed property services firm Connaught’s debts could pass £100m after the administrator KPMG discovered 50,000 additional invoices. Bills for everything from Dairy Crest milk to RBS bank loans have been left unpaid, according to a report by KPMG following Connaught’s collapse in September. Unsecured lenders exposed to the firm’s social maintenance arm will recover at [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 5, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES NEW HOLE IN CONNAUGHT DEBT The scale of debt at Connaught, the collapsed property services group, will be greater than previously thought after administrators found 50,000 invoices that the company had not accounted for. Management accounts had led administrators from KPMG to believe that the social housing maintenance arm of Connaught owed £46m [...]
Lords told big four auditors pose systemic risk to British economy November 2, 2010 THE dominance of the “big four” auditing firms poses a systemic risk, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee was told yesterday. Managing partner of auditor BDO Simon Michaels said: “If one of the big four were to exit the market, without a plan B, there could be chaos.” The lords were asking about the [...]
Pace of staff recruitment slows down November 2, 2010 STAFF appointments rose at the weakest rate for 14 months in October, with the pace of recruitment slowing in both permanent and temporary staff placings. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG Report on Jobs – published today – found overall demand for staff was reported to have increased at the weakest rate for [...]
Lords query lack of audit competition November 1, 2010 THE House of Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee will today question industry representatives on whether lack of competition among auditors could have contributed to the financial crisis. Representatives from RSM Tenon, Grant Thornton, Mazars and BDO will face questions in the afternoon on whether the dominance of the “big four” auditing firms – Deloitte, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 1, 2010 RBC Capital Markets The corporate and investment bank has hired Mark Sartori as head of European trading and sales trading, and Calum MacInnes as head of European sales. Sartori, pictured, was most recently at Macquarie Securities, where he was head of financial institutions. He has also worked at Fox-Pitt Kelton, Cazenove and Credit Suisse. MacInnes [...]
The housebuilder who is ready to take the long road back to recovery October 31, 2010 DESPITE the generally depressed state of the housebuilding and residential property market, Taylor Wimpey’s chief executive Peter Redfern says he is pretty pleased with business. But sitting in the boardroom of his London office, his mood appears more reflective than upbeat. “Prices are very stable at the moment,” says Redfern. “Stable is good for us. [...]
Three cheers for the stars of the Square Mile October 28, 2010 LAST night was truly an exciting and exceptional occasion: City A.M.’s inaugural awards celebrating the best and brightest of London’s business, financial and investment communities. Our inaugural awards ceremony saw more than 450 guests in their finery roll up at the Grange Hotel at St Pauls. Our winners, unique in that each was initially chosen [...]
CITY WELCOMES A DOSE OF FESTIVITY AND OPTIMISM October 28, 2010 “AN EVENING of festivity and optimism” was the way in which our editor Allister Heath introduced City A.M.’s inaugural awards ceremony last night, and the evening did not fail to live up to expectations. After years of gloom-mongering and banker-bashing, what better way to acknowledge the role of the City in bringing the economy back [...]