Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered Labour’s first Budget in 14 years, announcing £40bn of tax rises, Central London Alliance comments
WPP expands in Singapore December 15, 2011 ADVERTISING giant WPP has acquired a majority stake in Qais Consulting, the Singapore-based digital marketing agency, for an undisclosed amount. VML, the digital marketing arm of WPP, will be joined with Qais, which boasts Standard Chartered, the Singapore Ministry of Defence and Sony among its clients. Qais’ revenues for 2010 were S$4m (£2m) with gross [...]
Barclays mulls pay clawback December 14, 2011 BARCLAYS is considering clawing back part of its executives’ bonuses over the bank’s £1bn mis-selling of insurance, chief executive Bob Diamond was forced to admit yesterday. After a testy exchange with Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the influential Treasury select committee of MPs, Diamond eventually conceded: “We are taking into account in our businesses that impact [...]
Barclays mulls pay clawback December 14, 2011 BARCLAYS is considering clawing back part of its executives’ bonuses over the bank’s £1bn mis-selling of insurance, chief executive Bob Diamond was forced to admit yesterday. After a testy exchange with Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the influential Treasury select committee of MPs, Diamond eventually conceded: “We are taking into account in our businesses that impact [...]
Banks stocks fall as FSA calls for tighter regulation December 12, 2011 The FTSE 100 was pegged back by miners and banks in early trading as the Eurozone continued the struggle to dig itself out of the sovereign debt crisis Domestically the decision by the Government to shun a Eurozone agreement on closer fiscal ties was sinking in with cracks appearing in the coalition over the move. [...]
StanChart eyes Islamic banking December 11, 2011 Standard Chartered is in discussions with regulators to offer Islamic banking services in Oman and Nigeria, now that both countries are revamping their regulatory environments to encourage Islamic finance, the bank’s global head of Islamic banking said yesterday. Wasim Saifi said the company may be able to offer the services as early as next year.
Firms accused of poor ethics plans: report December 11, 2011 FTSE 100 companies have been accused of failing to provide investors with clear measures of how they maintain robust ethical standards in a study conducted by the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors. The Institute has raised concerns that investors and shareholders are left with inadequate information about the methods companies are employing to protect themselves [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 11, 2011 HAYS Shore Capital rates the recruitment group as a “hold” with a target price of 63p, but makes downgrades to its estimates, seeing exposure to Europe and high Australian conversion rates as negative pressures. The broker lowers its earnings per share forecasts for 2012, 2013 and 2014 by 4 per cent, 16.7 per cent and [...]
StanChart to see profits grow by 10pc December 8, 2011 STANDARD Chartered confirmed it will see double-digit profit growth this year of at least 10 per cent, helped by a strong performance in emerging markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong. However, the bank said that although it had “a strong pipeline in difficult market conditions”, income in 2011 is now expected to grow at [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF STANCHART’S LATEST UPDATE? December 8, 2011 BRUCE PACKARD | Seymour Pierce The bank is currently trading on 1.8 times tangible book value, well ahead of European banks. In one sense we think this is justified given the geographies that StanChart operates in, however we are concerned that the secondary effects of the European bond turmoil will impact Asian trade… Hold. GARY [...]
Jitters ahead of euro summit and downgrades sink FTSE December 8, 2011 BRITAIN’S top shares sank to their lowest close in more than a week yesterday, having endured another choppy session, as investors jostle for position ahead of a crucial European Union summit outcome today. Sentiment was hurt when European Central Bank president Mario Draghi cooled market expectations about the prospect of an acceleration in ECB bond [...]