CITY VIEWS: WHEN DO YOU THINK THE ECONOMY WILL COME OUT OF RECESSION? November 25, 2009 SIMON DUKE LLOYD’S OF LONDON“I expect that by the end of next year we will see signs that the recession has ended, particularly because we’ve already hit bottom. It will take time for new jobs to surface and previous jobs to return, but I think the recovery process is underway.” MARK STOOP BEAZLEY“I think the [...]
UK COVERED WARRANTS SURE TO GROW November 11, 2009 ALEXANDRE HOUPERTHEAD OF LISTED PRODUCTS UK, SG CORPORATE & INVESTMENT BANKING WHILE covered warrants might seem like a relatively new means of trading the markets to UK investors, this month marks their 20th birthday in continental Europe, where they are now a well developed market widely recognised by the private investor. And Société Générale not [...]
THE TIPSTER December 14, 2009 NEWS that British Airways’ cabin crew has voted in favour of strike action, combined with the state of the airline’s pension scheme has put further downward pressure on the airline’s share price. On a technical level, shares are currently blocked from any further progress by a resistance line in place on the daily chart since [...]
It’s still possible to build a business in a recession December 21, 2009 THOSE of us who were there in the early part of this century when Alastair Lukies was walking the streets of the City of London with his vision for Mobile Money can remember the days before the banks adopted the Monilink platform. Last Thursday, the Aim-listed firm announced a new joint venture (JV) deal with [...]
Tourists will fill West End November 8, 2009 CENTRAL London shops expect to receive a glut of foreign customers this winter, enticed to the capital by the current weakness of the pound. The New West End Company, which represents retailers in Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street, is expecting a 5-10 per cent year-on-year increase in foreign shoppers over the festive period. [...]
Recession over but tough 2010 for UK December 16, 2009 THERE will be so many challenges confronting the British economy next year that it is hard to know where to start. The last remaining hard-core bulls, who still believe in a v-shaped recovery, will be bitterly disappointed; to a lesser degree, so will the perma-bears, who are still convinced that the UK banking system is [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 21, 2009 THE SUNDAY The Sunday Telegraph TEST FOR DEFENCE SPENDING PLEDGE The government’s pledge to direct £900m of defence spending into better equipment for Afghanistan will be tested next month when it announces the replacement for the controversial Snatch Land Rover. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is understood to be choosing between four vehicles, and industry experts say the [...]
UK Plc has much to learn from Tesco January 12, 2010 NAPOLEON Bonaparte was right: Britain is a nation of shopkeepers. Tesco’s great figures yesterday confirm that the retailer remains one of the UK’s few truly world-class corporate giants. Group sales increased by 7.5 per cent at constant exchange rates and like-for-like UK sales (ex-fuel and adjusted for Vat) were up by 4.9 per cent in [...]
250-YEAR OLD BOOZER BREAKS TRADITION TO BRING IN EARLY BIRDS January 25, 2010 TIMES really are a-changin’, aren’t they? We’ve all noticed a shift in the financial community’s attitude to wining and dining over the past few years, with slick power breakfasts replacing boozy lunches as the City’s repast of choice. But surely the old guard of the banking world never dreamed they’d see the day when Simpson’s [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 30, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES CARLYLE SUED OVER COLLAPSED FUNDA prominent Kuwaiti conglomerate is suing the Carlyle Group in a local court, alleging that the US private equity firm misrepresented the safety of its affiliate, Carlyle Capital Corp (CCC), a public debt fund that collapsed in 2008. The firm, National?Industries Group, invested $50m in CCC, which was marketed [...]