CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 30, 2009 Cazenove CapitalAsset manager Cazenove Capital has appointed Marcus Gregson as non-executive director. Prior to his retirement, Gregson was the founding chief executive of HSBC Private Bank. He also held the position of managing director of private banking at Royal Trust Bank. He is currently non-executive director of a number of companies, including Sand Aire and [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 29, 2009 Kreab Gavin AndersonTom Grimmer has joined communications firm Kreab Gavin Anderson as managing partner, China. Grimmer will be based in Beijing and will advise multinational companies as well as Chinese corporations with international growth plans. He has worked and studied in Asia since 1985, previously working as senior communications advisor, Asia Pacific, to Credit Suisse [...]
EU banks face new debt woe July 27, 2009 EUROPE’S banks are set for renewed pain due to rising levels of consumer debt defaults linked to credit card loans, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned yesterday. The IMF estimates that seven per cent of Europe’s £1.5bn in consumer debt will turn sour, with the UK set to be particularly badly affected by its reliance [...]
Hotel firm failures rocket July 27, 2009 The number of UK hotel businesses becoming insolvent jumped by 120 per cent since June 2008, but the rate of failure is beginning to slow, according to a report out today by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. London hotel chains have so far defied the gloomiest of predictions by dropping room rates to attract volume demand. Hotel insolvencies peaked [...]
Brief respite in UK travel insolvencies July 26, 2009 THERE was a marked drop in the number of UK travel companies falling into insolvency in the second quarter of the year, new figures have revealed, after the sector enjoyed a boost from the warm weather and the weakness of sterling. Business advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said that just 12 UK travel firms succumbed to the [...]
Meet the deal-maker extraordinaire who hopes the crisis will end in 2010 July 26, 2009 It is hard to escape the feeling that Slaughter and May’s Nigel Boardman is ever so slightly bored. Given that he is London’s top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyer, and that we are still in the midst of a bitter recession which has led to a dramatic reduction in deal-making, this is not exactly surprising. [...]
The bankruptcy timebomb is waiting to explode July 22, 2009 WHEN Peter Mandelson was trade and industry secretary, he came back from a trip to America on a mission to foster a greater spirit of entrepreneurialism in Britain by introducing a US-style insolvency regime. He wanted to create a “nation of entrepreneurs” and his belief was that everyone deserved a second chance if they failed. [...]
Begbies Traynor shares rise as profits grow on the back of bankruptcy boom July 9, 2009 INSOLVENCY specialist Begbies Traynor said yesterday that its full year pre-tax profit had risen 28 per cent as it benefited from the boom in businesses going bust, sending its shares higher. The accountancy firm reported a profit of £7.2m for the year to 30 April, and said that activity levels since are “significantly ahead” of [...]
Distressed firms depart Aim in growing numbers July 9, 2009 THE NUMBER of Aim-listed companies that have delisted due to financial distress and insolvency soared by 183 per cent in the quarter ending 30 June, according to figures released yesterday. City law firm Trowers & Hamlins and accountancy group UHY Hacker Young published the research, which showed that 34 companies delisted due to financial problems [...]
CITY MOVES Who’s switching jobs July 6, 2009 BDO Stoy HaywardThe accountancy firm has hired three new partners to its London business restructuring team. Danny Dartnaill joined BDO in 2003 and has recently been involved in high-profile restructurings in the retail and asset management sectors. Nick Goldstone, who joined the firm in 2002, specialises in the leisure and hospitality sector, while insolvency practitioner [...]