Even an alien apocalypses can be dull March 10, 2011 Film BATTLE: LOS ANGELES Cert: 12a Only in Steven Spielberg’s head do aliens ever come in peace. So here they are invading once again, superior to us in numbers, technology, firepower and tentacles. Just like Independence Day, War of the Worlds, District 9, last year’s terribly bad Skyline, last year’s terribly good Monsters and any [...]
UK in manufacturing bounce back March 10, 2011 Manufacturing output rebounded more than expected in January to rise at its fastest monthly pace in 10 months, after firms made up for a weather-related drop in output in December, official data showed on Thursday. The Office for National Statistics said manufacturing output rose one per cent in January, more than reversing a 0.1 per [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 9, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BARCLAYS WINS SUIT OVER SALE RISK LEVEL Barclays has won a legal case brought against it by a small San Marino bank which alleged the UK bank sold it complex debt products which were “much riskier” than the triple A credit rating they had been given. Cassa di Risparmio della Repubblica di San [...]
Why filling in the census improves your life March 9, 2011 SO, how old are you? Have you ever been married? Who do you live with? Do you have a mortgage? How many bedrooms do you have? What religion are you? Yes, it might feel like Big Brother plopped on our doormats this week. The 2011 census asks questions that probably many of us would find [...]
Nomura appoints its first ever female chief financial officer March 7, 2011 JAPANESE bank Nomura has appointed its first ever female chief financial officer (CFO) as part of a reshuffle. Junko Nakagawa was previously co-deputy CFO at the lender and, will step up to join the executive management board. The changes come as Nomura diversifies its operations to better compete globally. Since the purchase of the non-US [...]
Latin America drives sales at Michael Page March 7, 2011 RECRUITER Michael Page has posted improved profits for 2010, driven by its expansion into emerging markets. Gross profit for the year rose 23.8 per cent to £442.2m, with 72 per cent of the company’s profit generated overseas. The fastest-growing market was the Americas, driven by expansion into Chile – the firm’s fourth Latin American market [...]
Petrofac sees big growth in Middle East March 7, 2011 OIL services firm Petrofac said yesterday it was confident about profit growth of at least 15 per cent this year, after posting a 58 per cent jump in profits in 2010. Petrofac posted a pre-tax profit of $663.5m (£409.7m) for the year, up from $432m in 2009 on revenues up 18.8 per cent to $4.35bn. [...]
Nord Gold unlikely to retry London float this year as Severstal looks for growth March 3, 2011 RUSSIAN mining and steel group Severstal is unlikely to bring its Nord Gold arm back to the market for another IPO attempt this year, the firm’s chief financial officer told City A.M. yesterday. “Definitely we believe we will come back to the market when we are ready,” said Alexey Kulichenko. “We really need to focus [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 2, 2011 Kinsey Allen International Sebastian Piggott has joined Kinsey Allen International (KAI), the global executive search firm, as a consultant. Piggott joins Kinsey Allen International’s fixed income practice to focus on senior sales and trading hires across credit, rates and foreign exchange. Piggott started his career in 1990 at Yamaichi International, and subsequently worked for Natwest [...]
The boss of the world’s largest law firm has more targets in his sights February 27, 2011 Britain’s most ambitious legal empire-builder bounces into one of his firm’s 11th floor meeting rooms in its modern London headquarters near St Paul’s – Sir Nigel Knowles, who has built DLA Piper from humble beginnings into a global powerhouse, is in the middle of completing another merger. Luckily for us, he is keen to talk. [...]