M&S boss in new pressure to cut salary February 28, 2010 MARKS & Spencer’s (M&S’s) joint chief executive and chairman Sir Stuart Rose has seen renewed investor demands to reduce his pay in the latest shareholder salvo against executive pay deals. Rose, who assumed the joint title of chairman and chief executive last year, could see his £1.13m salary reduced by investors after an ongoing and [...]
BACON TOP OF THE CROP OF RICH LIST HEDGIES April 22, 2010 IT’S been rich pickings indeed for the hedge fund community this year, if leaked information from the Sunday Times Rich List’s rundown of the wealthiest hedgies in town is anything to go by. Apart from two individuals whose wealth has stayed the same over the past year (Nat Rothschild at Atticus and Steven Heinz at [...]
City applauds Tory cut-price shares move February 22, 2010 CONSERVATIVE plans to offer millions of people cheap shares in Britain’s nationalised banks have received a tentative thumbs-up from the City. Shadow chancellor George Osborne yesterday outlined a scheme to hand small investors shares in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group when the government exits its £70bn stake. The “people’s bonus” would reward [...]
Covered warrants help you play the election April 7, 2010 IF there is one thing that markets hate, it is uncertainty. With some polls pointing to a hung parliament after the election, many traders are tempted to take their money off the table until it is clear who is in charge of the British economy. If that means waiting until a second election – a [...]
BLANK GETS READY FOR TRIP BACK TO LLOYDS September 2, 2010 SIR Victor Blank, who quit Lloyds Banking Group last year in the aftermath of its controversial merger with HBOS, is returning in a few days’ time for a happy occasion. Blank is there as the guest of current chairman Sir Wyn Bischoff who is hosting an unveiling ceremony of a portrait of his predecessor in [...]
Heat is on at RBS as bonus verdict looms February 8, 2010 ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) has locked horns with the Treasury in ongoing talks over the size of its bonus pool, which is expected to hit up to £1.4bn this year despite the bank’s heavy losses and the angry populist backlash against weighty City payouts. Chief executive Stephen Hester has repeatedly stressed the importance of [...]
Banks consider legal challenge to government’s bonus supertax January 21, 2010 A GROUP of banks including Royal Bank of Scotland has hired City law firm Clifford Chance to explore a legal challenge to the government’s 50 per cent bonus windfall tax. The Global Financial Markets Association, which counts RBS, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse among its members, is examining the legal route as well as a [...]
Close Brothers mulls the launch of a sterling bond January 27, 2010 BANKING group Close Brothers is meeting investors to discuss options for a possible sterling bond issue, bankers familiar with the situation said yesterday. The mid-tier investment bank has appointed Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS to manage the investor meetings, they said. Close Brothers declined to comment on the speculation. The group is made [...]
Barclays set for a bonanza February 15, 2010 BARCLAYS is preparing to give a boost to the banking industry tomorrow, when it is expected to kick off the UK bank reporting season by announcing a bumper £11.2bn profit haul. The figure includes a £6.2bn one-off profit on the sale of its asset management arm Barclays Global Investors to BlackRock last year – a [...]
HSBC director set for £10m pay windfall March 1, 2010 HSBC’s investment banking chief Stuart Gulliver is set to pocket a bumper payout of over £10m, after profits at the global banking and markets arm jumped threefold to $10.48bn (£7bn) during the 2009 financial year. Gulliver, 50, who joined HSBC from university 30 years ago, will receive a bonus of £9m in deferred stock, as [...]