Small firms say they lack faith in official stats September 10, 2012 SMALL FIRMS have little faith in official forecasts, preferring instead to rely on information from their own business or their peers, a survey from Axa has revealed. A whopping 92 per cent of respondents said they did not use official government economic predictions in planning their business strategy, the survey showed. Of those disregarding the [...]
City Moves | Who’s switching Jobs September 5, 2012 HSBC James Emmett has been appointed the bank’s head of global trade and receivables finance. He began his career at HSBC 17 years ago, and has held a variety of roles in trade finance, commercial banking, retail banking and strategy. Most recently, Emmett was head of strategy and planning for commercial banking. He replaces Rakesh [...]
Axa helps fund new King’s Cross offices September 4, 2012 INSURANCE giant Axa has agreed to forward fund the development of BNP Paribas’s new headquarters at King’s Cross for around £300m. Axa, in partnership with an unnamed partner, will take ownership of the 400,000 square feet office building, which is 55 per cent pre-let to BNP Paribas on a 15 year lease. Construction is due [...]
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. [...]