Insolvency fees could be fixed February 17, 2014 INSOLVENCY practitioners trying to salvage value within collapsed firms will no longer be able to charge an hourly rate, to ensure creditors get a fair deal, under plans put out to consultation by the government yesterday. The Insolvency Service said fees should instead be flat-rate amounts or a percentage of the value the practitioners manage [...]
Male directors more likely to break rules February 13, 2014 More directors are being disqualified after their companies collapse, but the insolvency specialist Zolfo Cooper has warned that not enough execs are being banned for misconduct. The restructuring specialist said 235 directors were disqualified in the last three months of 2013, up from 181 in the previous quarter. 85 per cent of those banned were [...]
Relief for Austria as S&P rules out downgrade on banking woes February 11, 2014 AUSTRIA’S government will not face a downgrade if it takes over bad assets at broken bank Hypo Alpe Adria, credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s said today. The government had hoped other banks would back a so-called bad bank solution for the nationalised lender’s loans. But after the rest of the industry refused to join in, [...]
City Moves for 12 February 2014 | Who’s switching jobs February 11, 2014 Cushman & Wakefield The real estate services firm has announced the appointment of David Mills as a partner and head of portfolio valuation. He was most recently at BNP Paribas Real Estate, where he was a director in its portfolio valuation practice. Standard Chartered The bank has hired Michael Benz as group head of private banking. He [...]
Administration rescued fewer stores in 2013 as retail struggles February 3, 2014 THE NUMBER of stores surviving when major retailers fall into administration dropped significantly this year, despite interest rates being held at historically low levels. According to restructuring and insolvency firm FRP Advisory, the proportion of shops staying open when big retail chains go into administration has dropped, from 50 per cent in 2012 to only [...]
Brighter outlook for companies as restructuring predicted to fall February 2, 2014 MORE than three quarters of lenders believe company restructurings will fall or level off this year, as the difficult environment for struggling companies starts to ease, a fresh poll out today says. The figures from Deloitte shows 52 per cent of lenders think the number of restructurings will fall over 2014 while 24 per cent [...]
RBS accused of vampire behaviour to kill SMEs January 29, 2014 SMALL businesses have been forced into a restructuring unit by RBS, where their assets were stripped and sold on for profit, a government advisor claimed yesterday, calling the lender a “vampire.” The bank denied the claims, arguing there is no evidence of the allegations made by Lawrence Tomlinson to MPs on the Treasury Select Committee. Tomlinson [...]
Why doesn’t UK growth reflect red hot business surveys? January 20, 2014 While several surveys are roaring higher, the strength implied by these indicators isn't apparent in official data. Deutsche Bank's chief UK economist, George Buckley, has looked into the problem ahead of the latest GDP figures, due on the 28 Janaury. Analysts expect fourth quarter GDP to come in slightly lower than the previous two quarters [...]
Former Kazakh banker set to be extradited January 9, 2014 A FORMER banker accused of embezzling up to $6bn (£3.6bn) from his employer should be extradited to Ukraine or Russia to face fraud charges, a French court ruled yesterday. Mukhtar Ablyazov, who was chairman of Kazakh bank BTA, had been in hiding since being sentenced to prison for contempt of court by an English judge [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 06 January 2014 January 6, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Europe to ease reform on bank splits Brussels is set to ease financial reforms so that big European banks are not forced automatically to split lending operations from risky trading. In a draft European Commission proposal, seen by the Financial Times, the separation is no longer mandatory, would be less costly and restrictive [...]