Gartmore seals Hermes tie up April 6, 2010 FUND management firms Gartmore and Hermes yesterday sealed a deal to create a new joint venture, combining their private equity fund of fund businesses into a vehicle with £4.1bn of assets under management. The new firm, called Hermes GPE, will be 50 per cent owned by each party. Gartmore and Hermes have recruited a raft [...]
Why the euro is an economic absurdity May 5, 2010 I REALLY wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to meet Bertrand des Pallieres. This is the man, after all, who lightened the gloom in the middle of the financial crisis with the story that his £80,000 Maserati had been towed, but that he was “too busy” setting up his hedge fund, SPQR, to [...]
The land of opportunity May 18, 2010 WHILE Europe desperately struggles to escape Greek contagion, the US is fighting its way out of recession. In the first three months of 2010, US GDP rose 0.8 per cent, putting the annualised rate at 3.2 per cent. Over the same period, Germany and the UK grew just 0.2 per cent, France and Spain grew [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 21, 2010 Royal London Asset Management The asset management firm has promoted Ian Goulsbra to the role of head of wholesale relationships, effective immediately Goulsbra joined RLAM in 2007 as a business development manager for the south of England. He was previously at Premier Asset Management, where he was head of institutional sales, and also spent time [...]
Essar Group readies £5bn London listing March 7, 2010 INDIAN conglomerate Essar Group is readying plans for an $8bn (£5.3bn) listing of its oil and power arm on the London Stock Exchange. The Mumbai-based group, owned by billionaire brothers Shashi Ruia and Ravi Ruia, is thought to be planning to list a holding company for its exploration, power, refinery and production businesses. The group [...]
Meares set for Asia move February 11, 2010 HSBC is looking to relocate Chris Meares, the global head of its private bank, from London to Hong Kong in order to take advantage of Asia Pacific’s growing wealth. JP Morgan’s head of private banking, Douglas Wurth, successfully completed his move to the region this week and other financial institutions are now looking to follow [...]
RSA CELEBRATES THREE CENTURIES OF INSURING PRIZED CITY ASSETS May 27, 2010 CITY insurer RSA certainly knows how to celebrate in style. The firm is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year – though it’s not sure of the exact day – and has been busy thinking up various gimmicks to mark the occasion. First of all, RSA roped in brewer Shepherd Neame to create a special anniversary [...]
New directors on board at Pearl as it heads for UK float February 18, 2010 FUND management and insurance group Pearl yesterday said it was pressing ahead with a London stock market flotation despite its well-publicised wrangle with bondholders. The company, which is being renamed as Phoenix, is not raising any new capital at the time of its listing. Shareholders Liberty Acquisitions and Hugh Osmond, the group’s founder, do not [...]
RBS Sempra sale derailed by bank laws January 31, 2010 PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s proposed changes to US banking legislation could have derailed the sale of RBS Sempra to JP Morgan Chase. The banking giant is now only interested in buying the branches of the company that operate outside of the US. The two are now working on a deal that could see RBS sell its [...]
Blankfein: I had worst day April 26, 2010 GOLDMAN Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein has said that the day the SEC civil fraud charges against his firm became public earlier this month was “one of the worst days in my professional life.” In written testimony released ahead of a Senate hearing a clearly affected Blankfein said: “We have to do a better job of [...]