MEET THE ADVISERS October 6, 2011 LAWRENCE GUTHRIE HAWKPOINT PARTNERS HAWKPOINT Partners is advising Arbuthnot on the Secure Trust Bank flotation process, fielding a team led by Lawrence Guthrie, managing director in its financial services team. Guthrie has previously advised extended warranties specialist Domestic and General Group on its sale to Advent International for £542m, and helped the Manchester-based Davenham Group [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 6, 2011 Signia Wealth Shalini Khemka has been appointed as a managing director to develop the wealth manager’s private equity arm and expand the business overseas. Khemka will continue as CEO and director of The London Entrepreneurial Exchange, which she co-founded in 2010 while working as an investment banker at LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds [...]
Share price is undervalued, says Diamond October 4, 2011 THEY could not have timed it any better – or should that be any worse? Some of the biggest names in banking came together in London yesterday as industry shares fell over fears politicians are failing to tackle the Eurozone crisis. Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays, told the Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference [...]
FTSE falls below 5,000 as banks tumble October 4, 2011 The FTSE 100 plunged below 5,000 this morning as the banking sector took a hammering sparked by the economic chaos which continues to engulf Greece. While the Government unveiled initiatives to spark economic growth including ‘credit easing’ for small businesses, the state of the Eurozone’s finances continued to cast a shadow. European shares extended losses [...]
NEXT LORD MAYOR SETS OUT A CITY MANIFESTO October 3, 2011 ALL CHANGE in the Lord Mayor’s office, as alderman David Wootton was yesterday elected the 684th Lord Mayor of the City of London at the Guildhall. The Lord Mayor Elect, as Wootton will be known until he takes office on 11 November, used his election day to declare that the theme of his year in [...]
Greek crisis saps market confidence October 3, 2011 Banks were the biggest fallers across Europe on opening this morning after Greece admitted it will not meet 2011-2012 deficit targets imposed by international lenders as part of the country’s bailout. The sector was down 3.7 per cent on the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, illustrating the problem for financial institutions saddled with burden of the [...]
Confidence is low, says poll October 2, 2011 EXPECTATIONS of economic growth are weakening, according to 200 fund managers surveyed by Capital Spreads, City A.M. can exclusively reveal. Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets is reporting low business confidence in a separate study, also out today. Fund managers are 18 per cent more pessimistic than they were in May, according to Capital Spreads. At the [...]
NBNK confirms bid for Lloyds branches September 29, 2011 New British bank venture NBNK has submitted a second-round bid for some 630 Lloyds bank branches, NBNK confirmed which sources saying it could be worth £1.5bn. The auction — codenamed “Project Verde” — offers a chance to create Britain’s seventh-biggest bank in one fell swoop. The sale includes 4.6 percent of personal current accounts and [...]
PRINCESS LAUNCHES OUR APPEAL FOR AFRICA September 29, 2011 CITY LEADERS met royalty at The Savoy on Tuesday night, at a dinner to mark a new partnership between City A.M. and an African microfinance charity that aims to improve the lives of thousands. Guest of honour was HRH The Princess Royal, a patron of the Opportunity International (OI) charity, who told guests including Vallares [...]
Lloyds gets just one bid on branches September 28, 2011 LLOYDS has received just one formal bid on the 632 branches it is selling. NBNK Investments, the buy-out vehicle set up by Lord Levene, bid substantially below the £2bn that Lloyds is hoping to get. As part of the conditions of the bid, City A.M. understands that NBNK would agree to buy only a portion of [...]