Thomson Local bought out of administration August 15, 2013 DIRECTORY services brand Thomson Local was bought out of administration by two serial entrepreneurs yesterday. Thomson Local, which sends out 22m copies of its UK business directory and maintains several websites, appointed Grant Thornton as administrator on Wednesday, following several tough years. The Hampshire-based firm posted a net loss of £732,000 for 2011, [...]
Groupama shores up balance sheet with €518m SocGen sale August 13, 2013 FRENCH insurer Groupama has sold its remaining stake in bank Societe Generale for €517.8m (£445m) as it continues moves to shore up its balance sheet. Groupama, which had come under pressure from ratings agencies, said that the sale of its 1.86 per cent Societe Generale stake would allow it to boost financial flexibility and cut [...]
City Moves for 13 August 2013 | Who’s switching jobs August 12, 2013 Menzies The accountancy firm has announced the appointment of Philip Alfandary as associate director in its tax team. Alfandary has practised as a taxation solicitor for nearly 20 years. He was most recently at law firm TLT, where he was a partner and head of corporate tax. Norton Rose Fulbright Elisabeth Bremner has been appointed [...]
HSBC appoints insider to head up new capital financing unit in Asia August 9, 2013 HSBC has appointed Stephen Williams as head of the Asia Pacific division of the bank’s newly created capital financing unit, Reuters was first to report. Williams is currently HSBC’s head of global capital markets in the Asia Pacific region in Hong Kong, and has held senior positions at UBS and JP Morgan. He graudated with [...]
Fab boss needs to work on his dismissal chat August 7, 2013 AS JOB market watchers will recall, HSBC eloquently announced back in April that it would be “demising the roles” of 942 relationship managers as part of wider job cuts. And if you thought that was a hideous turn of phrase readers, look away now. It seems that the recent culling from Fab.com boss Jason Goldberg [...]
Best of the brokers for 8 August 2013 August 7, 2013 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com MILLENNIUM & COPTHORNE Jefferies maintains its “hold” recommendation and 510p price target on the hotel chain, despite quarterly results which were worse than the broker’s forecasts. Jefferies warns that a slowdown in performance in Asia will continue, but is upbeat about the firm’s [...]
London Report: Mining shares lead FTSE lower in thin trading August 6, 2013 THE UK’S blue-chip share index fell in thin, volatile trade yesterday as a selloff in mining stocks, led by Fresnillo, more than offset gains in financials. Shares in Fresnillo dived 10.9 per cent in volume more than twice their 90-day average after the precious metals miner cut its dividend due to a fall in the [...]
Off-form McIlroy confident of title defence August 6, 2013 WORLD No3 Rory McIlroy remains confident that he can put a terrible start to the year behind him and mount a strong defence of his US PGA Championship title at Oak Hill when he tees off tomorrow. McIlroy has entered 15 events in 2013 and failed to make the cut on four occasions. He is [...]
Slowing China hits HSBC profit growth hopes August 5, 2013 PROFITS jumped 10 per cent at HSBC after a campaign to cut costs and close inefficient business units, the bank announced yesterday. But the first half results fell short of investors’ hopes as emerging markets growth missed expectations, leaving the lender’s shares down 4.37 per cent at the end of the day. Pre-tax profits came [...]
Bottom Line: Bank takes Flinty stance on bonuses August 5, 2013 FOR HSBC, a bank that makes 80 per cent of its profits outside of Europe yet is domiciled within it, the EU’s planned bonus cap would be a huge disadvantage when trying to attract talent. So it’s no wonder HSBC chairman Douglas Flint came out (almost) all guns blazing yesterday – his bank has [...]