WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 18, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph BARCAP TO RAID ECM BANKERS Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of barclays bank, is creating a bold plan to catapult its equity capital markets (ECM) business into a global top-three player in under five years. The ambitious strategy just 18 months after its $1.85bn (£1.2bn) acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ [...]
London retail boost fuelled by Easter lift April 18, 2010 RETAILERS in central London saw an almost ten per cent rise in sales last month – fuelled by a booming Easter. The figures, based on a comparison with March last year, showed that the weak pound and an increase in Chinese visitors over the holiday helped to keep tills ringing, with a 9.9 per cent [...]
British Land closes £29m West End offices deal April 16, 2010 BRITISH Land has sealed a £29m deal for a West End development site. The 93,000 square-foot property in Baker Street was bought from Irish developer McAleer & Rushe. It will be developed as a mixed office and retail scheme which has already been given planning permission. The company said it was confident that the market [...]
LIB DEMS SET TO RIDE CREST OF BEER WAVE April 15, 2010 A WELCOME pre-election boost for Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, from the most unusual of quarters – the traditionally right-leaning environs of the City. It’s just 20 days before polling day and Clegg’s policies haven’t exactly met with rapt enthusiasm from the Square Mile, what with proposals to slap a “mansion tax” on homes worth [...]
Grosvenor hit by £500m fall in its portfolio April 15, 2010 THE value of the Duke of Westminster’s property portfolio slumped by £500m last year, following plummeting housing prices during the recession. His property group, Grosvenor, which is renowned for its ownership of palatial properties in Belgravia and Mayfair, saw the value of its estate tumble to £5.22bn from £6.17bn in 2008. The group reported a [...]
Prudential causes a stir with surprise AIA appointment April 14, 2010 PRUDENTIAL surprised analysts by appointing its UK chief executive to lead the integration of AIA in Asia yesterday, raising questions over the future of its UK operations. Rob Devey, who joined Pru last year, will oversee the assimilation of AIG’s Far Eastern unit after the British insurer’s $35.5bn (£23bn) takeover goes through in the autumn. [...]
A bright future for 10-year-old European ETFs April 14, 2010 IT WAS 10 years ago this week that Merrill Lynch unveiled the first exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Europe and listed them on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Britain was not far behind – iShares launched its first FTSE 100 ETF on the London Stock Exchange on 28 April 2000. A decade later, the European ETF industry [...]
BarCap eyes retail share offer venture April 11, 2010 BARCLAYS Capital, the investment banking arm of British financial services giant Barclays, yesterday said it had formed a joint venture with Solid Solutions Associates (SSA) to oversee retail share offerings in initial public offerings. The deal will see SSA advise and assist Barclays Capital on project management aspects of any retail tranche of initial public [...]
Happy Easter for West End April 5, 2010 POOR weather and early spring sales offers from retailers drove at least 2m shoppers to the West End over the Bank holiday weekend. Some retailers are understood to have recorded double-digit sales growth on the Friday, although trading did slow down over Saturday and Easter Monday, according to the New West End Company – which [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 5, 2010 Threadneedle The asset management firm has hired George Gosden to join its Asian equities desk. Gosden spent the past eight years as a director at Insight Investment, where he was part of the international team. Prior to that, he was a director of Asian equities at Clerical Medical Investment Management. In his new role, he [...]