Treasury Committee prepares to grill influential economists’ panel March 25, 2010 THE House of Commons Treasury Committee will next week begin taking evidence for its inquiry into the 2010 Budget. The influential group of MPs will grill chancellor Alistair Darling, who is set to appear on Tuesday along with chief economic adviser Dave Ramsden. But first on Monday economic experts including the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 18, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph BARCAP TO RAID ECM BANKERS Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of barclays bank, is creating a bold plan to catapult its equity capital markets (ECM) business into a global top-three player in under five years. The ambitious strategy just 18 months after its $1.85bn (£1.2bn) acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ [...]
GOLDMAN AND GORDON HAVE SEEN BETTER DAYS April 21, 2010 GORDON Brown’s savage attack on Goldman Sachs for being “morally bankrupt” must have come as a surprise to those who can recall a time when the Prime Minister’s attitude to the bank was rather different. BGC’s veteran market commentator David Buik yesterday reminisced about a fundraising gala dinner he attended years ago in aid of [...]
HSBC and Barclays popular for standing alone September 8, 2009 AYEAR ago this week we experienced “The End of the World as We Know It” as investment bank Lehman collapsed, amid fears of the whole financial system going into meltdown. In the subsequent months I took part in many gloomy debates about whether everything had changed forever, or whether it was just a larger-scale event [...]
FSA fines Barclays over data September 8, 2009 BARCLAYS has been fined £2.45m by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing to provide the regulator with accurate reports of its transactions and for weaknesses in its systems and controls. The City watchdog said it had stumbled across “discrepancies” in Barclays’ data while probing an incident of suspected market abuse by a third party. [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 17, 2010 MORRISON Barclays says Morrison has continued to take market share, has seen profit growth accelerate and has sharply increased its dividend. Yet it was the worst-performing stock in the sector during 2009. To some extent Morrison is seen as a “consensus Buy”, a worthy story but one which lacks triggers which might lead to a [...]
Big oil will live on, but faces a harder future June 2, 2010 AS BP steps up its efforts to stem the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the speculation surrounding the costs associated with the clean-up continues to increase. BP estimates that the cost will be roughly $4bn, while some analysts predict that the clean-up, along with related lawsuits, could be as high as $10bn. While [...]
FTSE 100 closes up as the market is boosted by rising mining companies April 26, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index closed higher yesterday, boosted by miners as metals rose and overcoming wariness about the outcome of Greece’s debt problem. The FTSE 100 closed up 30.20 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 5,753.85, extending Friday’s one per cent rally, but below yesterday’s intra-day peak of 5,800.66. Antofagasta, Eurasian Natural Resources and Kazakhmys [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 5, 2010 Advent International The private equity firm has hired Kevin Beeston, the outgoing chairman of Serco Group, as an operating partner. Beeston will be tasked with helping Advent identify investment opportunities in the business services sector, and will also continue in his role as chairman of Advent’s portfolio company Domestic & General. He has worked for [...]
Concerns over Goldman Sachs weigh on the FTSE 100 as mining shares fall April 19, 2010 UNCERTAINTY over the fallout from fraud charges against Goldman Sachs and the grounding of flights across Europe depressed London blue chips yesterday, led by risk-sensitive banks and miners and travel firms. The FTSE 100 closed down 16.05 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 5,727.91, extending Friday’s 1.4 per cent fall. Banks were rattled as investors [...]