BANK CHIEF ‘OGRE’ GETS AN IMAGE OVERHAUL July 20, 2010 FAIRFAX chief executive Stefan Allesch-Taylor is on the blower following a story in this column yesterday about the boutique bank scouting around for a new investor – a move which could potentially usurp the big man’s family trust as the firm’s largest shareholder. Not that Allesch-Taylor’s particular beef is with the story itself, mind. He’s [...]
BANK CHIEF ‘OGRE’ GETS AN IMAGE OVERHAUL July 20, 2010 FAIRFAX chief executive Stefan Allesch-Taylor is on the blower following a story in this column yesterday about the boutique bank scouting around for a new investor – a move which could potentially usurp the big man’s family trust as the firm’s largest shareholder. Not that Allesch-Taylor’s particular beef is with the story itself, mind. He’s [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 12, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES INDIAN TELECOMS GROUPS HIT OUT AT CHARGES Telecoms companies in India have raised alarm over a threat of retrospective charges for users of mobile spectrum that analysts warn could cost them hundreds of millions of dollars. The move by the Indian telecoms regulator has provoked interest from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar. MICROSOFT [...]
Liberty sells flagship store March 15, 2010 Upmarket British retailer Liberty is selling its distinctive mock Tudor department store building in London’s West End for £41.5m to pay off debt, it said yesterday. The 135-year-old firm, 68-per cent owned by property group MWB Holdings, said it had exchanged contracts to sell the freehold interest in the 125,000-square-foot store to Sirosa Liberty, a [...]
Santander in £426m profit April 29, 2010 SANTANDER, the eurozone’s largest bank, grew its UK profits by more than 15 per cent in the first quarter as it bit off a greater market share in mortgage lending. The Spanish giant yesterday said trading profits were £426m in the three months to March. In a challenge to Britain’s high street players, Santander expanded [...]
A bright future for 10-year-old European ETFs April 14, 2010 IT WAS 10 years ago this week that Merrill Lynch unveiled the first exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Europe and listed them on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Britain was not far behind – iShares launched its first FTSE 100 ETF on the London Stock Exchange on 28 April 2000. A decade later, the European ETF industry [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 5, 2010 Threadneedle The asset management firm has hired George Gosden to join its Asian equities desk. Gosden spent the past eight years as a director at Insight Investment, where he was part of the international team. Prior to that, he was a director of Asian equities at Clerical Medical Investment Management. In his new role, he [...]
High street sales bounce back after sterling falls March 14, 2010 RETAIL sales in London rebounded in February with a like-for-like surge of almost ten per cent fuelled by a drop in the value of sterling. The rise came after a dismal start to the year as freezing conditions kept shoppers at home. Across the UK sales were only up an average of 2.2 per cent [...]
Prudential causes a stir with surprise AIA appointment April 14, 2010 PRUDENTIAL surprised analysts by appointing its UK chief executive to lead the integration of AIA in Asia yesterday, raising questions over the future of its UK operations. Rob Devey, who joined Pru last year, will oversee the assimilation of AIG’s Far Eastern unit after the British insurer’s $35.5bn (£23bn) takeover goes through in the autumn. [...]
Market abuse trader turns up at XCAP May 18, 2010 A CITY trader who was fined for market abuse by the regulator six years ago has returned with the launch of a new investment bank. Chris Potts was head of market making at Evolution Securities when he was slapped with a £75,000 penalty by the Financial Services Authority in 2004. The charge, meted out for [...]