CNBC Comment: Investors are warming to sickly France April 14, 2014 MARKET darlings have been feeling the pain of rejection. Now safer dividend stocks are the new best thing, but curiously there is another contender for reallocating funds – France. The benchmark CAC 40 Index, which delivered double the pace of growth of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2013, with returns of 15 per cent, [...]
City Moves for 14 April 2014 | Who’s switching jobs April 14, 2014 Bishopsgate Financial The financial sector consultancy has announced the appointment of Adam Crawford as a director. He left the Royal Marines in 2012, and has since worked at Oppenheimer and as a freelance consultant for Saab Group. Close Brothers Asset Management The asset management company has hired Amy Lazenby as an investor director and lead [...]
Amazing comeback as formerly bust Greece finally borrows again April 9, 2014 THE GREEK government will today return to the international capital markets for the first time since 2010, launching a new bond despite the fact that the country is still mired in recession and deflation. Recent rumours of a sovereign sale were confirmed yesterday as the country’s finance ministry outlined plans to issue a five-year bond, [...]
Inside Track: HSBC to get one over on Barclays with capture of Moreno April 9, 2014 LIKE hands-on managers who get rebranded as directors of football, senior advisers at investment banks often find their august titles are merely stepping-stones on the way to a graceful exit. HSBC’s latest recruit suggests that theory is unfounded at Europe’s largest bank. City sources say it has signed up Glen Moreno, the chairman of Pearson, [...]
Banks slow pace of swaps mis-selling compensation April 8, 2014 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has put out its latest figures on its interest rate hedging products redress scheme. Last month, a total of £598.4m had been paid of by the UK’s four largest banks to small businesses to which they mis-sold the complex products. In the month, £116.4m was paid out, down from £175m [...]
Outlook for east Asia growth cut by World Bank April 7, 2014 THE WORLD Bank cut its GDP outlook for several countries in developing east-Asia yesterday, trimming previous forecasts for the world’s fastest growing region. The emerging economies are expected to grow by 7.1 per cent this year and at the same rate next year, down 0.1 percentage points from the estimate in October 2013. According to [...]
Tullow Oil increases credit facility April 7, 2014 FTSE 100 energy explorer Tullow Oil yesterday said it has refinanced its $500m (£300m) revolving credit facility and increased the size to $750m. It has also extended the offering’s maturity until April 2017, replacing the previous facility which was due to expire in November 2014. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, HSBC, [...]
HSBC’s former legal boss hired for Aquis board April 7, 2014 AQUIS Exchange, the trading platform set up by the former boss of Chi-X Europe, has beefed up its board by adding HSBC’s ex-legal chief Richard Bennett to its roster. Bennett, who was group general counsel of HSBC and spent 33 years at the bank, will join Aquis’s boardroom today as an independent non-executive director. The [...]
City Moves for 07 April 2014 | Who’s switching jobs April 7, 2014 Carmignac Gestion The asset management firm has appointed Keith Ney as sole portfolio manager of the European bond fund Carmignac Securite. He joined in 2006 from Fincapital, where he was a European equities analyst. Duff & Phelps The corporate finance advisory firm has appointed two managing directors to its global restructuring practice. Steve Billot joins [...]
Emerging markets come to a halt April 3, 2014 The HSBC emerging markets index hovered barely above the neutral 50 mark in March, at just 50.3, the fourth month in which firms in developing economies have reported slower growth in activity. Output fell marginally in China and India, according to the index, with a minor improvement for Brazil and the most severe drop for [...]