CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 15, 2012 Shore Capital The independent investment group has appointed Christian Yates as senior adviser within its asset management division. Yates was previously a partner at Hazel Capital, the specialist cleantech investment manager, where he established a renewable energy infrastructure business. Yates has over twenty years in the fund management industry and has held senior positions at [...]
Wall Street finally out of the woods March 14, 2012 WALL STREET’S financial crisis is almost over – or so the Federal Reserve would like us to believe. It rushed out the results of its stress tests of the 19 biggest US banks last night: just four failed – in all cases relatively narrowly – a test which gauged their ability to withstand a financial shock [...]
Game teeters on the brink of insolvency March 12, 2012 GAME shares plunged as much as 78 per cent yesterday to just three quarters of a penny after it was unable to assure investors that the value of its shares could be redeemed or grown. Just weeks after renegotiating its banking covenants, Game said it was “uncertain” whether any of the solutions being discussed with [...]
Begbies says insolvencies falling March 12, 2012 Professional services group Begbies Traynor cut 30 of its insolvency practitioners last year as fewer UK companies went bust, it said in a trading update yesterday. The firm said low interest rates had helped to keep the insolvency market “subdued”, though it has been trading in line with expectations thanks to improved cost control and [...]
A Parliamentary blueprint to end banking hazards March 8, 2012 STEVE Baker MP has proposed a private member’s bill, the Financial Institutions (Reform) Bill, calling for radical reforms to the banking system and an end to state involvement in banking. Baker is co-founder of the Cobden Centre, a free-market institute advocating the restoration of sound banking and honest money, and is the Conservative MP for [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 29, 2012 Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy The US law firm has hired corporate partner Mark Stamp to join its partnership from rival Linklaters, though no start date for his appointment has been announced. Stamp has been a partner at Linklaters since 1994, having joined the firm in 1983 as a trainee. He works in domestic and [...]
China’s bad debts will fuel next crisis February 29, 2012 THERE can be no doubt that China’s story is one of astonishing economic success. Ever since they started to embrace capitalism in the late 1970s, the authorities in Beijing have presided over the greatest, most extensive wealth creation and poverty reduction experiment in history. But the remaining elements of central planning at the heart of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 26, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES WELLS FARGO EYES EUROPEAN BANK ASSETS TO POWER EXPANSION PLANS Wells Fargo plans to increase the size of its wealth management and insurance divisions through acquisitions as well as buying more assets from shrinking European banks, its chief executive says. John Stumpf, whose bank’s market capitalisation is bigger than that of any other [...]
Red tape and defaults hit bank lending February 26, 2012 STIFLING regulations and a rising number of defaults are forcing banks to cut down on lending, a new report from Ernst & Young warns this morning. Banks are being “forced on a diet”, according to the firm’s Marcel Van Loo, who said: “on the one hand they are being asked to hold more capital but [...]
Fitch: Bailout is likely to fail February 22, 2012 GREECE has received a fresh blow as ratings agency Fitch downgraded the government, warning a “default is highly likely in the near term.” Even the shaky €130bn (£109.9bn) bailout deal, agreed by Eurozone leaders in the early hours of Tuesday morning, may not be implemented as parliamentarians in Germany’s ruling parties threatened to vote against [...]