Borrows set to reign at 3i after Queen leaves May 13, 2012 TOP City rainmaker Simon Borrows is set to be named this week as chief executive of 3i, Britain’s oldest private equity firm. Borrows, who joined as chief investment officer last summer, will take over from Michael Queen, who in March announced his intention to step down. The promotion of Borrows will surprise few in the [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 13, 2012 Rule Financial Pauline Parker has joined the provider of business and IT services to investment banks as head of its application managed services division. She joins Rule Financial from Temenos, the banking software solutions firm, where she served as a business consultant. Parker has also previously held the posts of Midas solutions director at Misys [...]
Fourth quarter disappoints for Superdry brand May 10, 2012 JULIAN DUNKERTON, chief executive of SuperGroup, yesterday insisted the brand remained strong and “was looking forward to the future” after reporting disappointing fourth quarter sales. The owner of the SuperDry fashion label posted flat like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to 29 April, blaming challenging retail conditions and poor weather in April. Last month SuperGroup [...]
Tullett Prebon cuts more jobs as it waits for trading recovery May 10, 2012 THE WEAK global trading market has forced interdealer-broker Tullett Prebon to cut another 60 jobs. Terry Smith’s firm said it has cut 140 jobs this year, rather than the 80 redundancies it had pledged in March. Tullett, which posted revenue of £305m for the four months to April, flat on last year, said two thirds [...]
IHG: still room at the Inn for the Olympics May 9, 2012 INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group (IHG) has said it continues to see “strong demand” in London ahead of the Olympics, as the world’s largest hotel operator posted better than expected first quarter profits. Chief financial officer Tom Singer said roughly 20 per cent of the rooms it was obliged to contract to Locog, the Olympic Games committee, [...]
Broadgate Circle to get makeover May 8, 2012 The owners of the Broadgate estate in the City have lodged plans to overhaul its main shopping area, in a move that could revive last year’s battle to preserve the area’s post-war architecture. The developer British Land and private equity firm Blackstone said yesterday they aim replace some of the existing office space around Broadgate [...]
Disney beats earnings forecasts thanks to theme parks and TV May 8, 2012 WALT Disney said last night that its quarterly earnings have risen 21 per cent, as the company posted growth at its media networks such as ESPN and at its theme park business. Disney reported net income of $1.1bn (£681m) for the fiscal second quarter, beating expectations. Revenue rose six per cent to $9.63bn, with a [...]
Asian growth boosts profit at Deutsche Post May 8, 2012 Deutsche Post DHL said it was upbeat on the rest of the year yesterday after new contracts and demand for express delivery services in Asia helped it beat expectations for sales and profit in the first quarter. “There is still very healthy growth [in Asia] and we are profiting from that because we are still [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 8, 2012 Barclays Sharon Quinlan has been appointed head of structured property, London within Barclays’s debt finance team. She joins from Bank of Ireland, where she was head of business banking and responsible for running its UK commercial banking franchise. She takes over from Richard Payne, who will stay on as a consultant. PMB Holdings Ed Jones [...]
A Bank of Britain is the best way to build a Big Society May 8, 2012 HARD economic times call for bold measures. With evidence that the UK is back in a technical recession, we propose the creation of a Bank of Britain. This would be a citizen-focused bank, designed to advance the Big Society. The government has already launched Big Society Capital, with capital mostly provided by the big four [...]