Economic Diary January 17, 2010 WHILE US banks will be dominating the calendar across the Atlantic next week, in Britain it is definitely the economic releases that will be taking centre stage. Kicking off is the property website Rightmove’s January house asking price survey, released this morning. The survey shows a monthly rise of 0.4 per cent and a 4.1 [...]
Sportech bags £91m funding January 4, 2010 GAMING group Sportech is targeting international expansion of its football pools business after tying up a new £91m funding deal. Sportech’s chief executive Ian Penrose said it is hoping to take the pools into Asia or elsewhere overseas, either on its own or with partners. The company has just renegotiated lending facilities with Lloyds Banking [...]
WHAT IS YOUR FORECAST FOR THE BRITISH ECONOMY IN 2010? December 20, 2009 MELISSA KIDD | LOMBARD STREET RESEARCH Our central forecast for GDP growth in 2010 is 1.4 per cent. We expect quite a strong fourth quarter of 2009 as consumers bring forward spending ahead of the VAT increase. But we then see subdued growth through much of 2010 with interest rates hitting 1.5 per cent by [...]
Sportech pays £51.4m for US sports betting business January 27, 2010 POOLS operator Sportech is buying racing and venue management business SGR from US group Scientific Games Corp for up to $83m (£51.3m) in cash and shares to become a world leader in pools betting. Sportech said yesterday it would pay an initial $65m, followed by $10m on 30 September 2013 and up to $8m if [...]
IT’S DOG EAT DOG AMONG TOP RETAIL BANKERS February 1, 2010 IF THE government wants more competition in the retail banking sector, it’s more competition it’s gonna get. Hot on the heels of yesterday’s heart-warming tale about new High Street lender Metro Bank planning to welcome dogs into branches – and offer them free bowls of water and chewy bones – comes a response from Metro’s [...]
Persimmon in house sales boost January 7, 2010 Housebuilder Persimmon remained cautious over the health of the housing market despite a stronger performance in the second half of 2009. The FTSE 250 group said it completed the sale of 8,796 new homes during 2009, which generated a turnover of around £1.4bn. Almost 5000 of these properties were sold in the second half – [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 14, 2010 Cazenove Capital The asset management firm has appointed Louis Greening as a desk-based UK advisory sales consultant. Greening joins from Skandia, where he has worked in the London-based sales team for the past two years. Prior to that, he was at Friends Provident. In his new role, he will be responsible for building new relationships [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 15, 2009 F&C ASSET MANAGEMENT Singer Capital Markets trimmed estimates on F&C yesterday following a pre-close briefing with the company, to reflect slightly higher variable staff costs. But the broker said the share price remains at a discount within the sector after a year of strong fund performance. It kept its “buy” rating with a target price [...]
Stricken banks pull in the profits for Odey December 13, 2009 CRISPIN Odey, the hedge fund manager who made a killing over the course of the crisis by shorting stricken City banks, is set to pay himself a windfall of over £30m this year after profits at his firm soared by almost a quarter. Odey Asset Management is today expected to file accounts showing that it [...]
The billion pound money manager January 21, 2010 LIFE could have been different for Chris Oulton, but in 1982 he answered an advert at the back of the Saturday Telegraph, which offered an “unusual opportunity” to a bright young graduate. He applied and within weeks he had the job and was thrust into the world of commodity trading. He found himself working for [...]