Persimmon says government scheme is boosting enquiries April 19, 2012 PERSIMMON yesterday said it enjoyed a strong start to the year, with the government’s NewBuy scheme helping boost demand during the spring selling season. The housebuilder, whose brands include Charles Church and Westbury, said it continued to outperform, with visitor levels to its sites over the first 15 weeks of 2012 up 10 per cent [...]
ADVISERS GLEACHER SHACKLOCK April 10, 2012 Timothy Shacklock is leading the team at Gleacher Shacklock which is advising Cobham. The company specialises in corporate mergers, acquisitions and strategy. Shacklock, the former deputy chairman of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, founded Gleacher Shacklock in 2003. He has advised on a number of Europe’s most prominent corporate finance transactions, including the reorganisation of British Aerospace [...]
WOLFSON PRIZE: THE SHORTLIST April 4, 2012 JENS NORDVIG Nomura Securities Jens and his colleague Nick Firoozye argue the treatment of foreign law debt contracts is of crucial importance because there is around €10 trillion outstanding. Their essay says debt contracts falling under national or local law should be redenominated into a new currency, while debt contracts falling under foreign law should [...]
Shawbrook to ramp up lending after buying asset finance firm March 28, 2012 SHAWBROOK, the new business bank chaired by former RBS boss Sir George Mathewson, is set to grow this year after snapping up an asset finance business from the administrators of Icelandic lender Kaupthing. It has bought Singers Asset Finance, a major provider of finance to NHS trusts and small and medium sized enterprises, which did not [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 27, 2012 JLT Pension Capital Strategies The specialists in corporate consulting and pension scheme de-risking have appointed Martyn Phillips to the new role of head of buyout consulting, with effect from 2 April. Phillips will assume responsibility for buyout and settlement activity across the company. Prior to joining, Phillips was a senior consultant at Lane Clark & [...]
Mobile banking firm Monitise buys US rival for £108m March 26, 2012 UK mobile banking technology firm Monitise has agreed to buy privately held US rival Clairmail for $173m (£108m), expanding its reach on the key North American market. In the UK the firm currently provides mobile banking applications for customers of Natwest, Lloyds TSB, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC. After the deal Monitise will reach [...]
Britain’s faulty extradition treaty has opened up a fast route from City desk to jail March 25, 2012 YOU don’t have to read too far into the City pages, these days, to come across a story about individuals or institutions under investigation by either regulatory or prosecutory authorities. Whether it’s to do with mortgage securities, Libor setting, insider dealing, or another ill, there’s little doubt that working in financial services has never been [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 19, 2012 Patron Capital The pan-European institutional investor has appointed Mark Collins as chairman of its UK investment division, as it looks to invest over £1bn in the UK market over the next year. Collins will also become a partner of Patron Capital Advisers, the investment adviser to Patron’s funds. Collins was formerly managing director of the [...]
Government backs 95% mortgages for first-time buyers March 12, 2012 The government has launched a new mortgage indemnity scheme that is designed to allow first-time buyers to step onto the property ladder and boost the construction industry. Under the NewBuy scheme major lenders including Barclays, Nationwide and Natwest will allow people to borrow up to 95 per cent of the value of a home, with [...]
Mortgage time-bomb UK’s top threat March 7, 2012 SOME time-bombs can be defused. Not this one. At some point – in a year, in two, or perhaps even in five – the cost of borrowing for consumers will climb back to the sorts of levels we were used to 15 years ago. Complacent borrowers addicted to rock-bottom interest rates – and for whom [...]