City Moves for 27 September 2013 | Who’s switching jobs September 26, 2013 Cushman & Wakefield The real estate services firm has announced the appointment of Carl Foreman as a partner, and head of UK property and asset management. He joins from Jones Lang LaSalle, where he was a national director. BlackRock Mark Wharrier has joined the investment management company’s UK equity team as a director and portfolio manager. He will [...]
Riverstone aims to raise £1.5bn in energy float September 24, 2013 PRIVATE equity firm Riverstone Holdings yesterday said it is planning to float a new energy investment vehicle, Riverstone Energy, on the London Stock Exchange, in an initial public offering to raise up to £1.5bn. Lord Browne, former boss of oil major BP, is a partner at Riverstone Holdings and will take a board seat at [...]
Analysts see Societe Generale returning to strength September 23, 2013 The outlook for troubled French bank Societe Generale has improved significantly, according to analysts at Nomura with the bank outperforming the sector by 50 per cent. The bank has more than doubled from the doldrums of 2012. Confidence in the earnings outlook has improved and the sector's equity risk premium has declined according to Nomura's [...]
Adidas warns on profit as sales continue to weaken September 19, 2013 GERMAN sports wear maker Adidas warned on 2013 profit yesterday saying adverse currency effects, a distribution problem in Russia and poor trading at its golf business meant targets were no longer attainable. For 2013, Adidas now expects sales to rise by a low single digit percentage, against previous expectations for a low-mid single digit gain. [...]
Bottom Line: A global web player that is best of British September 19, 2013 ANYONE who said there was no space in the internet retail revolution for British business may have to start eating their words. On the heels of Ocado’s return to form thanks to a licensing deal with Morrisons comes this startling set of numbers from Asos. They confirm the online fashion retailer’s extraordinary achievement. In little [...]
The Fed’s taper surprise highlights a wider problem with monetary policy September 19, 2013 THE US Federal Reserve’s surprise decision not to scale back its stimulus programme on Wednesday night should not perhaps have been so unexpected. Back in 2010, in those early days of quantitative easing by the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, I suggested that both institutions would be tempted to make sure the [...]
Asos sees sales soar with strong UK market and new growth in US and Russia September 19, 2013 Online retailer Asos has announced UK retail sales up 47 per cent for the three months to the end of August with 49 per cent growth in the UK. (Release) Retail sales for the year were up 40 per cent year-on-year. The company had 7.1 million active customers at the end of August, up 42 [...]
Unworkable Syrian chemicals plan saves Obama but exposes unrealistic US policy September 16, 2013 IT IS painfully evident that the agreement reached over Syria’s chemical weapons by Washington and Moscow in Geneva is so much less than meets the eye. The accord imposes unbelievably quick deadlines for Bashar al-Assad’s regime to meet. By the end of this week, Syria is to submit a full list of its chemical facilities. [...]
Letters to the Editor – 16/09 – House price cap, Startup survival, Best of Twitter September 15, 2013 House price cap [Re: Industry calls to limit lending won’t fix our bust housing system, Friday] A policy of the state intervening to cap house prices will strangle our fragile growth and exclude more people from home ownership. In economics, supply must meet demand. We need to fix the supply issues through less red tape [...]
US-Russia talks on Syria begin September 12, 2013 The US and Russia began high-stakes talks yesterday on Moscow’s plan for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons as Damascus applied to join a global ban. Talks in Geneva are part of a diplomatic push that prompted President Barack Obama to put on hold his plans for US air strikes in response to a chemical [...]