What the other papers say this morning – 21 January 2014 January 20, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Retailers join IPO shopping list Bankers are preparing to list a swelling number of high street retailers on the London Stock Exchange as their private equity backers rush to cash in on a recovery in the IPO market. Discount retailer Poundland and Pets at Home are poised to kick off the slew of [...]
Care specialist Cambian set to float in London March 19, 2014 CARE homes and specialist schools operator Cambian is to join the London stock market in a float that is believed to value the firm at north of £500m. Cambian announced its initial public offering yesterday, after a rise in outsourcing from local authorities and the NHS has given the firm a major chance to expand [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 26 March 2014 March 25, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Banks pay out $100bn in US fines Wall Street banks and their foreign rivals have paid out $100bn in US legal settlements since the financial crisis, according to Financial Times research, with more than half of the penalties extracted in the past year. The sum reflects a substantial shift in political attitudes towards [...]
Bankers claim strong demand for Altice flotation – The first test of 2014 January 22, 2014 Bankers have just said that their books have been covered for the upcoming £1bn plus issue of shares in Altice, which owns French and Belgian cable companies and mobile operations in Israel. It is the first Initial Public Offering (IPO) to price in Europe in 2014. Although the issue has a few days of marketing [...]
7 UK retail bosses that have quit unexpectedly February 24, 2014 Mothercare’s future on the UK high street looked promising when Simon Calver, the former head of online movie rental service Lovefilm, was appointed by chairman Alan Parker two years ago to lead its turnaround efforts. The board banked on his online experience to overhaul its estate and turn the chain into a multi-channel retailer. But [...]
Just-Eat dials up bid to debut on growth market February 23, 2014 FAST food site Just-Eat is sharpening plans to list on the new high-growth segment (HGS) of London’s main stock market, making it the first company to join the fledgling platform if it pulls the trigger on the plans. The company’s backers are understood to be examining a proposal to offload just 10 per cent of [...]
Inside Track: Rothschild shows independent advisers are on a roll February 13, 2014 AT THE top of Rothschild’s impressive and relatively newly-built London headquarters, a modern building set in the 17th century St Swithin’s Lane in the heart of the City, is an auditorium which the firm’s bankers use to host what are known as kick-off meetings for the flotations they’re working on. Over the past few months, [...]
Inside Track: Co-op board spat highlights need for change March 12, 2014 COMPANIES usually ban the use of social media sites to stop employees idling away work-time on frivolous gossip. In the case of the Co-operative Group, it might have been better advised to put a filter on the internet access of Euan Sutherland, its now-former chief executive. Sutherland took to Facebook on Sunday to denounce the [...]
Card Factory recruits advisers November 10, 2013 The Card Factory, the high street retailer started by a husband and wife duo in 1997, has appointed UBS and Morgan Stanley to help float the company. The business, which is owned by buyout firm Charterhouse, could be floated in London next year with a price tag of up to £1bn. The company was started [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 28 January 2014 January 27, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Jobs data defies Hollande pledge French unemployment rose to a record level in December, forcing President Francois Hollande to concede failure in his main political promise of 2013 to “invert the curve” of rising joblessness by the end of the year. Official figures published yesterday showed the number of jobseekers rose 10,200 in [...]