Infosys tries to buck outsourcing slowdown by buying Swiss firm September 10, 2012 SOFTWARE exporter Infosys said yesterday it had agreed to pay 330m Swiss francs (£218.4m) for Lodestone, a Zurich-based technology consultancy. Infosys, which has seen outsourcing income in its home country of India and in key US and UK markets hit by increased competition and the global slowdown, said the purchase was part of a strategy [...]
Women execs in sharp rise across Europe September 5, 2012 A THIRD of all new board members at Europe’s biggest firms this year are women, new research reveals today, with women now holding almost double the number of board seats than just eight years ago. Female directors now make up 15.6 per cent of boards, up from just eight per cent in 2004, and eighty-six [...]
Blake and Bolt win in Zurich August 30, 2012 ATHLETICS: Jamaicans Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt last night respectively won the diamond league meeting’s 100m and 200m.
Tax probe links to data breach at Julius Baer August 28, 2012 SWISS private bank Julius Baer yesterday said it suspected German client data allegedly stolen by a former employee could have been given to German authorities investigating tax evasion. The bank’s chief executive Boris Collardi admitted in a German newspaper on Sunday it had discovered “misuse” of client data by an employee. A spokesman yesterday said [...]
City Moves | Who’s switching Jobs August 22, 2012 EDM Group Iain Ferguson has been appointed non-executive chairman of the information management services provider. He is a previous executive vice-president of Havas, the French advertising company. Ferguson was also formerly chief executive of Mission Marketing Group, where he led its independent price offering. In his new role, he will identify and execute acquisition opportunities [...]
All aboard the magnificent Orient Express August 19, 2012 ITALY’S in debt, you say? Well, I’m on the Orient Express headed straight to Venice – fiddling while Rome burns, you might say – and there’s no sign of the Italian economy crashing here. As if to prove my point, the flamboyant Massimo shows me another popular purchase from the train’s on-board shop. “These diamond [...]
Zurich avoids disaster to post strong profits August 16, 2012 INSURANCE giant Zurich yesterday announced better-than-expected profits, largely thanks to the absence of any major disaster claims this year. Operating profit at the Swiss firm was $2.5bn (£1.6bn) for the first half of 2012, up 17 per cent, while the combined ratio for the same period – a measure of underwriting profitability – improved to [...]
Swiss Re sees policy prices rising further August 9, 2012 SWISS Re, the world’s second-biggest reinsurer, said premiums are likely to rise further in a continued reaction to the unusually high number of natural catastrophes last year, as it posted an unexpected quarterly profit. Huge natural catastrophes in 2011, including the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, have allowed insurers, who for years grappled with low bond [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 6, 2012 Riverview Law Paul Bird has been appointed finance director at the law firm. He joins from Pearson Education, where he was finance director and company secretary at its subsidiary, Education Development International. UBS Global Asset Management Stephen Hutton has been appointed head of UK wholesale at the asset management firm. He joins from Zurich Intermediary, [...]
Carnwath leaves Barclays as Del Missier gets £8.8m July 25, 2012 EMBATTLED bank Barclays suffered another significant loss yesterday as a third board member resigned in the wake of mounting turmoil following the devastating Libor scandal. Non-executive director Alison Carnwath left the bank after almost two years on the board citing time pressures, as she holds numerous other directorships across the City. Although she has not [...]