Development Securities eyes £100m rights issue July 22, 2010 BRITISH property firm Development Securities yesterday said it planned to raise about £100m through a share placing and rights issue to fund future projects. The company, which specialises in office and retail development projects, said it would place about 4.1m shares at 250p a piece, a discount of 8.8 per cent to their closing price [...]
Bradford & Bingley back in the black July 30, 2010 Bradford & Bingley, the mortgage lender which was nationalised after running into problems during the credit crisis, said on Friday it had swung to a first-half profit after making a loss a year earlier. The bank reported a pretax profit of £896m for the six months ending June 30, having made a loss of £160m [...]
Bankers: further pay curbs will cripple the City August 8, 2010 BANKERS are warning politicians and regulators they risk an exodus of talent from London if they put further curbs on pay in response to rising bonus levels. New ONS figures show financial sector bonuses in the five-month period between December and April in the last financial year were £10bn, up from £8bn in 2008. The [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 21, 2010 BANK OF IRELAND The bank has appointed Bill Greaves to the position of head of corporate banking in the UK. Greaves previously led the bank’s technology, media and telecoms team, which he established in early 2005 upon joining the group. Prior to that, he led the media team at Barclays. In his new role, he [...]
Barclays buys NYSE market maker for $25m January 14, 2010 BARCLAYS has announced a $25m (£15.3m) deal for New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) market maker LaBranche & Co. The move means the UK bank can make even stronger its position as the biggest market maker on the index. The deal will also reduce the number of designated market makers on the NYSE to just four [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 16, 2010 Daiwa Capital Markets Hetal Mehta, a former senior economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM club, has joined the Japanese brokerage’s investment banking arm as its new UK economist. Mehta joins from Oxford Economics and has also previously worked at HM Treasury and in the office of the deputy Prime Minister as a policy [...]
SABMiller beer volumes fall July 22, 2010 Brewer SABMiller reported a decline in first-quarter beer volumes yesterday despite a World Cup boost, after floods, national mourning and a tax hike hit drinking in key markets. The brewer of Miller Lite, Peroni and Pilsner Urquell said that underlying beer and soft drink volumes were one per cent down year-on-year. Analysts were on balance [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS August 12, 2010 BEWARE PHONE CALL SCAM HM Revenue & Customs has issued a warning to taxpayers after reports that thieves were making phone calls pretending to be the taxman. According to reports, fraudsters say that you are due a tax rebate and ask for your bank details over the phone. They then try to gain access to [...]
Treasury to meet with bankers July 14, 2010 Britain’s biggest banks are set to clash with the government today as ministers try to force HSBC, Barclays and Santander to agree to commitments on business lending. George Osborne and Vince Cable are also expected to push for the introduction of net lending targets when they meet with the banking bosses at the Treasury this [...]
IHG eyes higher profit August 8, 2010 HOTEL group InterContinental Hotels (IHG) is expected to reveal a surge in profits tomorrow thanks to the return of the business traveller. Analysts expect the group, which owns the Holiday Inn chain, to unveil first half operating profits of $205m (£128m), a rise of 14.5 per cent. The sharp rise in profits is down to [...]