50 top female hedge fund stars named February 7, 2010 FIFTY of the most powerful women in hedge funds have been named in a new survey celebrating the achievements of the fairer sex in an environment traditionally dominated by alpha males. Fourteen London-based women are among those named in the survey, published by the Hedge Fund Journal and PricewaterhouseCoopers, making the capital the second largest [...]
Greek bond sale buys time for the EU March 4, 2010 GREECE was forced to accept a crippling level of interest on its issue of a €5bn (£4.5bn) bond yesterday, ensuring that it was massively oversubscribed. Just 24 hours after the struggling country announced new austerity measures, national debt management boss Petros Christodoulou said the gilt sale was “going very well, beyond expectations”. The news sent [...]
CPP hopes to buck the trend of IPO failures in March listing February 18, 2010 INSURANCE firm CPP will brave choppy IPO waters with a March flotation. It has not announced how much it plans to raise but City A.M. has learned the firm hopes to issue up to £30m from new shares, valuing it at £450m. It is believed owner and founder Hamish Ogston will also sell a £150m [...]
Clegg calls for break-up of biggest City banks January 11, 2010 LIBERAL Democrat leader Nick Clegg will try to break up large banks like Barclays and HSBC if he finds himself in government after the next election. “The age of universal banking has to come to an end,” Clegg said as he launched his general election campaign yesterday. Asked if he was making an implicit threat [...]
Portuguese bank buys half of broker Execution Noble February 8, 2010 CITY stockbroker Execution Noble yesterday bounded ahead with its aggressive expansion plans after Banco Espirito Santo (BES), one of Portugal’s largest banks, snapped up a majority stake in the business. BES said it had paid around £50m for the 50.1 per cent stake in Execution, which bought up its smaller rival Noble just seven weeks [...]
CHELTENHAM BRINGS THE CITY OUT IN FORCE March 16, 2010 TO Gloucestershire yesterday for the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival, the favourite corporate entertainment jolly of the year for many a self-respecting racegoer. Bucking the austere trend of recent years, this year’s Festival has already seen a roaring trade in City schmoozing, with the long list of companies taking private suites including HSBC, BlackRock, [...]
EX-FA BOSS BARWICK LANDS NEW CITY ROLE January 27, 2010 SOMETHING of a coup for law firm Lewis Silkin yesterday, as it announced the appointment of former Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick as a consultant in its sports law team. Barwick, of course, departed the FA under a bit of a storm cloud back in 2008, after fans and commentators alike placed the blame [...]
BT has £9bn pension hole February 11, 2010 BT yesterday revealed a yawning pension deficit of £9bn. Shares in the company – which now has the biggest pension deficit in the private sector – nose-dived as the extent of the black hole was revealed. The firm announced an agreement with trustees to pay back the vast sum over 17 years, adding £525m into [...]
CAUGHT IN THE THROES OF A NIGHT OF PASSION March 10, 2010 AS AN elite bunch of the City’s most successful ladies and gentlemen left the Mansion House last night after a fundraising “Passion and Performance” evening hosted by Lord Mayor Nick Anstee, they should have been justifiably proud. For between just 320 guests from blue-blooded institutions such as Barclays, Accenture, Linklaters, HSBC, RBS, Lloyds Banking Group, [...]
Prudential preparing for £23bn AIG Asian deal February 28, 2010 PRUDENTIAL, the largest insurer in Britain, is on the verge of an audacious takeover of the Asian operations of American International Group valued at around £23bn. The Pru would raise £15bn through a mammoth rights issue to help fund the transaction, which would transform it into the most powerful insurance player in the high-growth Far [...]