City Moves for 22 January 2013 | Who’s switching jobs January 21, 2013 Mayer Brown The law firm has appointed Alistair Graham as a litigation partner in its London office. He joins from White & Case, where he was a partner in its London commercial litigation practice. Graham has previously worked as enforcement counsel to the FSA, where he assisted in the run up to the introduction of [...]
Best of the Brokers January 20, 2013 CREDIT SUISSE Morgan Stanley has upgraded Credit Suisse from “equal-weight” to “overweight” and upped its target price from SwFr25.50 to SwFr30 on expectation of gritty costs cuts from the Swiss bank. This could lead to a return on tangible equity of around 14 per cent, even on flat 2012 earnings, limiting downside. BG GROUP RBC [...]
Afferro in talks with Indian energy firm January 17, 2013 AFRICAN-focused Afferro Mining yesterday confirmed it was still in active talks regarding a potential takeover offer with several buyers, including with New Delhi-based Jindal Steel and Power Limited. The AIM-listed miner said it had received approaches from a number of interested parties, but stressed that there was no certainty that an offer would be forthcoming, [...]
RBC decides to trim back costs after expansion January 15, 2013 RBC, the Canadian bank that has been investing heavily in building up an investment banking franchise in Europe, yesterday announced job cuts in London. Nick Fothergill, head of European equities, has left the bank, along with three sales traders, two market-makers and two other salesmen. Fothergill joined RBC Capital Markets from Nomura with over 17 [...]
First Quantum row over Inmet stake heats up January 13, 2013 FIRST Quantum Minerals’s hostile C$5.1bn (£3.2bn) takeover bid for Inmet Mining took a tense turn over the weekend, as the Canadian base metal miner delivered a letter to its rival suggesting Inmet may be trying to scuttle the bid, which is now in the hands of shareholders. The letter, addressed to Inmet’s board chairman David [...]
Ford doubles dividend to seven year high on good balance sheet January 10, 2013 US CAR maker Ford yesterday doubled its quarterly dividend to 10 cents per share, a seven-year high, due to strong sales in North America and its “strong balance sheet”. The increase follows years of struggling during the economic crisis, when Ford suspended its dividends for five years up until December 2011. “We had thought that [...]
Best of the Brokers January 10, 2013 G4S RBC has lifted the security company from “Outperform” to “Top Pick” with a price target of 320p, believing it will catch up with its peers after having underperformed the services sector by 27 per cent last year, as well as the FTSE 100 by 11 per cent. In 2013, G4S is likely to see [...]
African Barrick Gold plunges as talks finish January 8, 2013 SHARES in London-listed miner African Barrick Gold (ABG) plummeted more than 20 per cent yesterday, as its Canadian parent Barrick Gold said it was no longer in talks to sell the unit to a national Chinese gold company. The talks with China Gold regarding the London-listed gold producer, which is 74 per cent-owned by its [...]
IMIC confirms Afferro approach January 2, 2013 BIDDING for junior stockmarket-listed Afferro Mining hotted up yesterday, as fellow AIM-listed International Mining & Infrastructure Corporation (IMIC) confirmed that it had approached the miner with regards to a possible takeover offer. IMIC has proposed an offer at between 115p and 140p for each Afferro share, which would value the iron ore miner at around [...]
London’s quality of Liffe at heart of NYSE purchase December 20, 2012 TAKING control of the London-based Liffe derivatives market is the main reason Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) paid $8bn (£4.9bn) for exchange operator NYSE Euronext, analysts declared yesterday. Although the NYSE Euronext group includes the venerable New York Stock Exchange and equity markets across Europe, it is the derivatives arm that offers growth opportunities as new regulations [...]