AXA Private Equity buys data firm September 3, 2012 AXA Private Equity yesterday announced it had acquired French data collection company Place des Leads. It follows on from the group’s purchase of a majority stake in German clothing exporter Schustermann & Borenstein last month. AXA Private Equity director Antoine Lacour said in a statement: “This investment was attractive largely thanks to the significant expertise [...]
City Moves | Who’s switching Jobs September 3, 2012 AXA Real Estate Dietrich Heidtmann has been appointed global head of investor relations and capital markets at the real estate fund. He joins from Grosvenor, where he was responsible for capital raising and investor relations. Heidtmann has also held roles at Morgan Stanley International. Coface Frederic Bourgeois has been appointed managing director of the credit [...]
What the other papers say this morning September 2, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES CIC sells bulk of its BlackRock stake China Investment Corp has sold most of its stake in BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, as part of a wider strategy by the sovereign wealth to cut its holdings in global financial institutions. CIC bought just under 3 per cent of BlackRock’s shares, worth about [...]
Drake & Morgan opening more quirky City bars August 13, 2012 CITY WORKERS rejoice. Drake & Morgan, the quirky bar and restaurant group behind the Anthologist and the Folly in the City, is set to launch two more venues for thirsty employees to visit after a hard day’s work, this time nearer to Holborn and St Paul’s. Fund manager Axa Real Estate revealed yesterday it has [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 5, 2012 AXA Wealth Andrew Smith has been appointed chief operating officer of the wealth management firm’s Elevate investment platform. He joins from Nucleus, where he was responsible for its platform design and build. Smith has also held senior roles at Logica and Thomson Reuters. Mazars The advisory firm has appointed Phil Verity to the position of [...]
AXA first-half earnings fall, beat forecasts August 3, 2012 Europe’s second-largest insurer AXA reported a milder than expected 36 per cent drop in first-half profit from a year-ago period that had been boosted by a one-off gain from the sale of its Australia and New Zealand operations. AXA said its net income for the period fell to €2.59bn (£2.03bn) from €4.01bn in the year-ago [...]
Tip-top resources worth exploiting July 29, 2012 WITH the Olympics in full flow, the government is determined to drum up business from our foreign guests. After all, trade is what the wealth of nations is built upon. For its part, StartUp Britain has a free event on 6 August in City Hall on how start-ups and small businesses can explore overseas opportunities. [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 22, 2012 Avocet Mining David Cather has been appointed chief executive of the West Africa-focused gold mining and exploration firm. He joined the board as chief operating officer in May 2012 from European Goldfields, where he was also chief operating officer, and replaces Brett Richards. Cather has previously held senior positions at Anglo American and De Beers. [...]
Coller raises $5.5bn to buy private equity assets July 19, 2012 Coller Capital has raised $5.5bn (£3.5bn) to buy private equity investments from banks and other investors, tapping into a growing niche that has seen some of the biggest pools of capital raised by buyout firms over the last year. As traditional private equity groups have found new capital hard to raise and deals tough to [...]
Vivendi break-up eyed as Levy steps down over strategy row June 28, 2012 THE reign of Vivendi chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy ended yesterday in a strategy dispute with the French telecoms and media conglomerate’s supervisory board, paving the way for possible disposals to shake up its flagging share price. Vivendi, whose shares are at nine-year lows, has been reviewing its conglomerate structure and seeking ideas on how to [...]