FTSE is boosted by banks as stress test fears begin to ease July 7, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading share index ended higher after a choppy session yesterday, driven by a recovery in banking stocks on reassuring comments from US peer State Street and an easing of stress test fears. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was 49.82 points higher, or up 1.0 per cent, at 5,014.82, its high for the [...]
LDC close to Antler acquisition May 9, 2010 Lloyds Development Capital (LDC) , the private equity arm of the Lloyds Banking Group, is on the cusp of snapping up long-established luggage firm Antler after a lengthy auction process for the business. Antler has been owned by Barclays Private Equity since 2004 and has been on the market since last September. Turnaround specialists Endless [...]
GOODHART: IF I WERE ON TODAY’S MPC, I’D WANT TO BE PUT TO SLEEP August 3, 2010 ATTENDEES at the London School of Economics’ (LSE) monetary policy conference yesterday morning were treated to an A-list talking heads line-up, with former members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Sir John Gieve and Charles Goodhart joining Fitch Ratings’ Brian Coulton to discuss interest rates. Unfortunately, the audience was not about to flatter its illustrious [...]
Weak banks and miners hurt FTSE July 5, 2010 WEAK banks and miners, beset by doubts over the health of the global economic recovery, pulled down Britain’s top share yesterday, while BP rose on media reports it is seeking a strategic investor. By the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 14.56 points, or 0.3 per cent at 4,823.53, having ended 0.7 per cent [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS April 12, 2010 BARCLAYS Seymour Pierce has issued a “sell” recommendation on Barclays, noting that during the last seven years, the bank has grown income by 18 per cent, while avoiding many of the toxic assets and poorly timed acquisitions. Barclays Capital’s top line could be 33 times the revenue of the UK retail bank, which the broker [...]
Aldermore: Businesses are being failed by big banks May 20, 2010 ALDERMORE, the lender created from the ashes of Ruffler Bank, has warned that small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are being suffocated because they cannot access credit. The institution, which was reinvigorated when it was taken over by private equity group AnaCap last year, fired a broadside at the likes of Barclays and HSBC when it [...]
Inefficient FX markets offer an opportunity June 29, 2010 THE currency market is the most liquid in the world. Turnover tops $3.1 trillion a day, which dwarves both the equity and bond markets. Given the ubiquity of currency trading, it’s easy to assume that the FX markets would be efficient. But that is not the case. American Century Investments, an investment management firm, believes [...]
Traders look to hedge fund guru for lead on Barclays November 2, 2009 AFTER eight months of holding onto his 1.5 per cent stake in Barclays, one of London’s top hedge fund managers announced last week that he has sold his stake in the high-street bank, which has risen in value by 550 per cent over the period. Crispin Odey, head of Odey Asset Management, cited uncertainty over [...]
Citi rainmaker King joins Barclays Capital October 27, 2009 BARCLAYS Capital, the fast-growing division of Barclays that includes the US operations of fallen Lehman Brothers, has hired former Citigroup deal maker Tom King. King, who quit Citigroup five weeks ago saying he wanted to “pursue other interests”, was named co-head of corporate finance reporting to head of global investment banking Hugh “Skip” McGee. The [...]
Citi rainmaker King joins Barclays Capital October 27, 2009 BARCLAYS Capital, the fast-growing division of Barclays that includes the US operations of fallen Lehman Brothers, has hired former Citigroup deal maker Tom King. King, who quit Citigroup five weeks ago saying he wanted to “pursue other interests”, was named co-head of corporate finance reporting to head of global investment banking Hugh “Skip” McGee. The [...]