BEST OF THE BROKERS February 4, 2010 PARTYGAMING Barclays Capital ups PartyGaming to “overweight” citing its improved operational performance. Sets a target price of 330p, suggesting 15 per cent upside to the current share price. Says if recent speculation of a merger between PartyGaming and Bwin proves true the shares would gain 45-55 per cent from their current value. ROLLS ROYCE GROUP [...]
Investec opts for share placing to buy back debt July 28, 2009 SOUTH African and British investment bank Investec said yesterday it had raised £85.5m via the placing of 22m new shares, to fund the repurchase of debt at a discount and improve its tier one capital ratio. The company said the placing would improve its capital ratio in accordance with the company’s aim of maintaining capital [...]
HOW MUCH WEIGHT SHOULD WE PLACE ON TOMORROW’S GDP FIGURE? January 24, 2010 DAVID PAGE | INVESTEC Sharp changes in the economy have led to significant deviation between the official series and anecdotal evidence. We continue to attach weight to the more buoyant assessments from the CBI and the PMI surveys. There is plenty of room for surprises at this first estimate. JAMES KNIGHTLEY | ING At this [...]
UK inflation surges to 14-month high February 16, 2010 Bank of England governor Mervyn King was forced to write his sixth explanatory letter to the chancellor yesterday after inflation hit a 14-month high of 3.5 per cent in January. The surge in the annual inflation rate, from 2.9 per cent in December, was caused by last year’s emergency VAT cut being reversed and higher [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 2, 2010 Jupiter Asset Management The asset manager has appointed John Tevenan as a sales director in its global financial institutions group, responsible for developing relationships among global wealth management businesses. Tevenan joins in May and is currently UK sales director at Investec Asset Management, where he has worked since 2005. He has also held roles at [...]
WHAT DOES THE FED’S RATES DECISION MEAN FOR THE US POLICY OUTLOOK? January 28, 2010 BRIAN FABBRI | BNP PARIBAS While the FOMC left the federal funds rate at 0–0.25 per cent, this was the first time since emergency conditions were set in place that a formal dissent has been made. Moreover, the text exposed important nods in the direction of a more confident view of the economic recovery than [...]
SHOULD THE MPC PAY ATTENTION TO THE STRONG UPTREND IN UK INFLATION ? January 17, 2010 MICHAEL SAUNDERS | CITIGROUP I doubt the MPC will totally dismiss the inflation upsurge because of the risk that its anti-inflation credibility continues to erode. Outside recession, an inflation targeting central bank cannot credibly ignore such large and repeated upside surprises in inflation data. PHILIP SHAW | INVESTEC We do not envisage significant concerns here, [...]
Bank’s report likely to show inflation on up February 7, 2010 THE revival in economic growth will take longer while the pace of inflation is likely to accelerate further in the coming months. That, at least, is what economists expect from the Bank of England’s quarterly inflation report on Wednesday, when the central bank will issue fresh growth and inflation projections. After the Monetary Policy Committee [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 19, 2010 MICHAEL PAGE Investec yesterday raised its target price for Michael Page to 410p from 360p and advised investors to hold the shares. It believes the recruiter’s recent trading update marked a turning point for the recruiter, noting gross profits were “sequentially ahead” for the fourth quarter compared to the same quarter last year. BURBERRY Evolution [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 20, 2009 FORTH PORTS Investec Securities kept its recommendation for Forth Ports as “buy”. Investec says the ports group should deliver robust business in a challenging economic environment, and praised the group’s resilience, thanks to a high level of contract cover and spread of commodities handled. The target price is 1,500p. ARIGHTMOVE Collins Stewart reiterated its “buy” [...]