Q&A BIS FUNDING December 9, 2010 Q. Does the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) have programs that help entrepreneurs? What are they? A.BIS has several programs that can give extra funding to entrepreneurs. Chief among them are the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) and the Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF). EFGs are bank loans intended for small and medium sized enterprises [...]
Hoffman will leave Rock November 4, 2010 Northern Rock yesterday confirmed chief executive Gary Hoffman will quit the firm for NBNK Investments, the new high street banking venture established by Lloyd’s of London chairman Lord Levene. Hoffman will be placed on gardening leave until 30 April, until which point he will receive his full £700,000 a year salary, car and petrol allowance [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 12, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES CREDIT SUISSE TO ISSUE COCOS EARLY Credit Suisse’s chief executive said he hoped to begin issuing billions of dollars in contingent-capital bonds in the next year to help shore up the bank’s financial strength well ahead of new Swiss regulations. Brady Dougan also defended Credit Suisse’s decision to award one-off payments to about [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 12, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES CREDIT SUISSE TO ISSUE COCOS EARLY Credit Suisse’s chief executive said he hoped to begin issuing billions of dollars in contingent-capital bonds in the next year to help shore up the bank’s financial strength well ahead of new Swiss regulations. Brady Dougan also defended Credit Suisse’s decision to award one-off payments to about [...]
Bank of Ireland says profit to tumble by a quarter November 12, 2010 Bank of Ireland forecast underlying full-year operating profit would drop by more than a quarter in 2010, knocked by lower income and the costs of government guarantees. Ireland’s biggest bank by market value was the first major Irish bank to replenish its capital from partly private sources, an exercise which left the state with a [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 15, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES CREST ADVISERS SHUN £350M HORIZON BID A £350m offer for Crest Nicholson was in jeopardy on Thursday night after advisers to the debt-burdened housebuilder told its lender-owners to reject the bid as too low. A steering committee representing Crest’s creditors, which took control of the housebuilder following a £630m debt-for equity swap last [...]
FTSE 100 hits a one-month high boosted by strong performance of energy shares June 16, 2010 BRITAIN’S top shares extended their winning streak to a sixth straight day yesterday to a one-month closing high, driven higher by energy stocks. The FTSE 100 ended the day up 20.10 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5,237.92, its highest closing level since May 18, notching up its longest winning run since September, having risen [...]
Goldman hires 110 partners November 17, 2010 GOLDMAN Sachs yesterday released the names of 110 of its staff who have been promoted to partner. Less than 500 of Goldman’s total workforce of 35,000 are honoured with the title. The number promoted is around 10 per cent higher than the average and the highest since 2006. Just 94 employees were promoted to partner [...]
Barclays November 9, 2010 DESPITE Barclays having avoided a taxpayer bailout, there’s plenty of fodder for populist banker-bashing in its third-quarter results. Pre-tax profits were down 76 per cent and £1.6bn has been set aside for bonuses. These headline figures ignore the impact of mark-to-market fluctuations in value and the fact that investment bank staff numbers are up 2,000. [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 2, 2010 MEARS Altium rates the housing repair firm a “hold” with a target price of 270p. The broker has downgraded its 2010 pre-tax profit forecasts by £0.6m, or two per cent, due to costs linked to small contract wins in the wake of Connaught’s collapse. The firm’s social housing pipeline has slipped slightly to £2.8bn, however, [...]