City squeezed by stronger pound April 28, 2014 BRITISH investors will lose out on billions of pounds due to soaring sterling, raising fears the currency will undermine the competitiveness of City-based multinationals and hammer shareholders. Scores of UK blue chip companies who report their profits in dollars are set to deliver smaller sterling payouts to investors this year after the pound climbed to [...]
Media consolidation: Why the agencies will keep getting bigger and bigger April 27, 2014 @LiamWardProud CONSOLIDATION at the top of the media business is nothing new. Publicis and Omnicom’s ongoing $35bn (£21bn) merger, subject to repeated delays by regulators, follows in the footsteps of the former’s acquisition of Saatchi & Saatchi in 2000. Sir Martin Sorrell, meanwhile, has continued busily adding to WPP’s bulging portfolio of companies built throughout [...]
What you need to know before the open April 25, 2014 Fears that the crisis in Ukraine will escalate are expected to see European markets open lower today. Signs of growing corporate takeover activity strengthened confidence yesterday, offsetting the persistent worries for a time. US secretary of state John Kerry has called on Moscow to either work towards diffuse the situation in Ukraine, or face more [...]
Tax hurdles throw doubt on advertising mega deal April 22, 2014 OMNICOM, the world’s second largest advertising agency, said yesterday it is unable to predict when its $35.1bn (£20.8bn) merger with Publicis Groupe would close, raising concerns that the deal might not go through. Omnicom said the mega merger has yet to receive approval from antitrust authorities in China or approval to establish tax residency in [...]
London Report: Osborne likely to have missed financial target April 21, 2014 UK PUBLIC borrowing figures this week are expected to show that the chancellor George Osborne narrowly missed his target for this year. And while future revisions may bring the figures back within Osborne’s target, the figures are likely to bring further scepticism about whether the UK can continue to meets its fiscal targets. “We expect [...]
City mourns bow-tied branding pioneer Olins April 15, 2014 TRIBUTES have been flooding in following the news yesterday of branding legend Wally Olins’ passing on Monday. The man who not only rebranded British Telecoms as BT, but also made wearing black rimmed glasses and bow ties cool long before east London’s hipsters got hold of them, has died of a short illness, aged 83. [...]
City Moves for 07 April 2014 | Who’s switching jobs April 7, 2014 Carmignac Gestion The asset management firm has appointed Keith Ney as sole portfolio manager of the European bond fund Carmignac Securite. He joined in 2006 from Fincapital, where he was a European equities analyst. Duff & Phelps The corporate finance advisory firm has appointed two managing directors to its global restructuring practice. Steve Billot joins [...]
Paris push for WPP’s digital arm April 1, 2014 WPP yesterday announced it has bought Paris-based digital marketing firm X-Prime via its marketing agency JWT. WPP said the takeover follows its strategy of developing its capabilities in digital media. X-Prime employs around 50 staff between Paris and Toulouse who specialise in producing corporate websites for firms like Krug and Saint Gobain. Last year X-Prime [...]
WPP continues its Chinese push March 25, 2014 Advertising giant WPP bought Chinese marketing agency XMKT Group for an undisclosed sum yesterday. XMKT specialises in customer experience management for a list of clients in the region including Diageo and Uniqlo. Last year XMKT’s 254 staff brought in revenue of 126m yuan (£12.3m). WPP companies in Greater China generated revenues of $1.4bn for WPP [...]
WPP in £20m Cognifide deal March 24, 2014 ADVERTISING giant WPP has taken a majority stake in London technology consulting firm Cognifide, whose clients include Direct Line, Virgin Media and Investec. The value of the deal was not disclosed, but it reportedly could be worth more than £20m. Co-founders Miro Walker and Stuart Dean are set for a windfall following the deal with [...]