Sports Direct hires Espirito as broker February 6, 2013 SPORTS DIRECT has hired the Portuguese investment bank Espirito Santo as its corporate broker after ending its six-year relationship with Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) earlier this month. The sportswear retailer, controlled by Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, said it had appointed Espirito with immediate effect, becoming joint broker alongside Oriel Securities. Ashley and [...]
FTSE edges up despite fears over US debt ceiling and Europe’s GDP January 15, 2013 BRITISH blue-chip stocks edged up yesterday after a choppy day as the index managed to consolidate above 6,100 despite testing support with concerns weighing over the US debt ceiling and growth in Europe. The FTSE 100 twice dipped below the 6,100 level, but recovered on both occasions following weakness in early and midday trade. The [...]
Sports Direct ends BAML link January 14, 2013 SPORTS Direct has parted ways with corporate broker Bank of America Merrill Lynch after six years. Mike Ashley’s retailer and the bank are believed to have ended the relationship by mutual consent at the end of last year. Ashley and BAML have worked together since Sports Direct floated in 2007, and are reported to have [...]
HP chief Whitman makes $15m as company suffers annual loss January 13, 2013 HEWLETT Packard chief executive Meg Whitman took home $15.4m (£9.5m) in her first year in charge of the US technology company, filings have revealed. The compensation, which came as HP suffered a net loss of $11.9bn in the year to November, was made up mainly in stock awards and options, but included a $1.7m bonus [...]
City Moves for 11 January 2013 | Who’s switching jobs January 10, 2013 Rathbones The investment management firm has appointed Mike Townsend as investment director. He joins from Coutts, where he was a senior private banker. Townsend has 34 years’ experience in wealth management, and is a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. City Financial The fund management firm has appointed Mark Harris as manager [...]
City Moves for 4 January 2013 | Who’s switching jobs January 3, 2013 Barings Asset Management Nicola Hayes has been appointed head of client service and relationship development in London for the investment management firm. She joins from Invesco Perpetual, where she was most recently associate director, global sales and relationship management. Hayes was also previously a consultant director in Invesco’s UK institutional sales team. Smith & Williamson [...]
Looking ahead to the 2013 markets December 17, 2012 IF WE have to go through 2013 in a similar vein to 2012, with a record number of Eurogroup, Ecofin, Euro summit, and FinMin meetings, my patience will be severely tested. It’s about time we moved on from over-analysing upcoming banking unions or aid packages. We need to return to a sense of normality, and [...]
Lynch in new challenge to HP December 10, 2012 MIKE Lynch, the British founder of Autonomy, said yesterday that he had not heard from Hewlett-Packard (HP), almost a month after HP accused former Autonomy bosses of account irregularities. HP wrote off over $5bn (£3.1bn) over the purchase of Autonomy, but Lynch, who denies the claims, said he believes in “innovation in all areas except [...]
Autonomy’s Mike Lynch sets up website to challenge HP December 4, 2012 MIKE LYNCH, the British founder of the software firm Autonomy, has intensified his battle with Hewlett-Packard (HP) by setting up a website to rebut HP’s explosive claims. HP took a $5bn (£3.1bn) writedown last month, saying former Autonomy management had inflated the company’s accounts before the firm’s $11bn sale to HP. Lynch has publicly denied [...]
Three big auditors are slapped with lawsuits over past work November 29, 2012 AUDIT firms Deloitte and KPMG are among the firms named in a US lawsuit brought by a disgruntled investor in Hewlett-Packard, though both firms distanced themselves from the troubled deal yesterday. The case, filed in California, claims the auditors missed numerous red flags about Autonomy, which HP bought last year. The tech firm has since [...]