Sunny skies help retail sales in May June 7, 2010 SUNNY weather and preparations for the World Cup helped retail sales rise on a like-for-like basis in May, but nervous consumers are still holding off on purchases of big-ticket items, the latest survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reveals today. On a like-for-like basis, retail sales values rose 0.8 per cent in May on [...]
KPMG wins award for values June 6, 2010 BUSINESS in the Community’s (BITC) annual corporate responsibility index is announced today, with professional services firm KPMG leading the pack with the highest possible overall rating and four Big Tick awards. The company has been awarded a platinum plus rating for its environmentally friendly offices and ban on short haul flights. It is one of [...]
UK must learn from Australia’s error June 3, 2010 IT is not just Britain that is about to shoot itself in the foot with a crippling and destructive tax hike on investors. In our case, it is capital gains that are being targeted; in Australia’s case, however, it is the mining industry that is the being subjected to a weird experiment in irrationality. It [...]
JP Morgan Caz is City’s top adviser May 31, 2010 JP MORGAN Cazenove continues to lead the City’s broker adviser tables, according to the latest quarterly rankings from Hemscott. The company has 244 clients, a gain of three since the last quarter and more than double its nearest rival. Second-placed Numis Securities gained five new clients to bring the total to 118, closing the gap [...]
IHG eyes Asia as business trips return May 31, 2010 BUSINESS travel is making a welcome comeback for the hotels sector while an Asian boom is transforming the business, according to InterContinental Hotels Group finance director Richard Solomons. The executive, speaking to City A.M. at the company’s flagship Park Lane hotel, is ebullient about the prospects for the company which has pumped millions into overhauling [...]
Job interviews are back, so it’s time to work on your technique May 26, 2010 FOLLOWING two years of relative stagnation in the City jobs market, where any movement tended to be of the non-voluntary nature, hiring is back in the Square Mile. The most recent employment report from KPMG shows that hiring is up 29 per cent in the private sector, compared to the previous quarter. Unsurprisingly, the biggest [...]
KPMG appointed as administrators of FirstCity after the company splits in two May 24, 2010 KPMG has been appointed as administrator of FirstCity Insurance Group and its holding company, FirstCity Partnership. Restructuring partners David Costley-Wood and Michael Walker at KPMG have been appointed as joint administrators by the company’s directors and will work to wind-up FirstCity Insurance. Walker said: “We are currently assessing the position and are looking to put [...]
Little value in employee law May 23, 2010 MANY employment laws have little value and should be repealed or amended, a report out today claims. As the new government reviews flexible working rules, the report by business advisers KPMG and human resources group CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) claims that one in four companies offer no more than the legal minimum [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 20, 2010 KPMG Kathryn Britten has joined the accountancy firm as a partner and chairman of its growing forensic practice. Britten has over 30 years of audit and accountancy experience and specialises in professional negligence and commercial dispute issues. She joins KPMG from rival BDO, where she has been the national head of their forensic accounting and [...]
MAN FROM THE PRU IN SPOT OF PULP FRICTION May 20, 2010 SEASONED investors will be familiar with the mountain of paperwork that traditionally accompanies any City deal, but it does rather take the biscuit when recipients are actually forced to order waste-disposal skips in order to get the documents off their hands. Yet this, ladies and gents, is the position which stockbroker Charles Stanley finds itself, [...]