City A.M. | Shadow mpc February 3, 2010 ALLISTER HEATH | CITY A.M. “Suspend QE, for the time being at least. A strong signal should be sent that a symbolic rate rise is imminent. It is hard to work out what is happening to liquidity but there seems to be enough of it at present.” SIMON WARD | HENDERSON “Stop QE and prepare [...]
Judgement day looms for speedster Jon February 11, 2010 2010 WINTER OLYMPICS JON Eley will have to hope his bold promises don’t come back to haunt him as he prepares to start his Winter Olympic medal bid. In Turin four years ago the short track speed skater finished fifth in the men’s 500m final – and promptly promised an upgrade in Vancouver. “I’ll be [...]
Britain is not heading for a hung parliament January 19, 2010 LAST year was tough for the banking industry, but it’s interesting to see which brands fared better than others. The two graphs show the proportion of positive responses each brand received out of the total responses for the set. Graph 1 tracks the three that did relatively well: Barclays, HSBC and National Savings and Investments. [...]
Osmond launches £500m buyout fund January 10, 2010 ENTREPRENEUR Hugh Osmond will this week announce plans to float a £500m turnaround vehicle on the London Stock Exchange. The Horizon fund, expected to list before the end of January, will target one large investment in a consumer-facing business. Advisers from Osmond’s private equity firm Sun Capital have drawn up a long list of prospective [...]
Renowned City veteran Sir Mervyn Pedelty dies January 28, 2010 Sir Mervyn Pedelty, chairman of Friends Provident and a former chief executive of the Co-op’s financial arm, has died at the age of 61. After a long career in financial services, he passed away on Tuesday, after a long illness, just 10 days after his birthday. The former TSB executive was also an independent director [...]
Record-busting Chemmy’s eyeing gold against all odds February 10, 2010 CHEMMY ALCOTT has talked the talk but now she must walk the walk after insisting a maiden Winter Olympic medal is within her grasp. The 27-year-old has been put through a rollercoaster of emotion, injury and funding problems since her last Olympic appearance in 2006 but is adamant the worst is behind her. First Alcott [...]
Darling and Osborne clash on secret loans November 25, 2009 A row broke out yesterday in the House of Commons after chancellor Alistair Darling and FSA boss Hector Sants defended the decision to keep secret the £61.6bn of emergency loans handed by the Bank of England to RBS and HBOS last year at the peak of the financial crisis. The loan facilities – £36.6bn for [...]
CITY AM | SHADOW MPC January 6, 2010 ALLISTER HEATH | CITY A.M. “The PMI services data show the UK grew in the fourth quarter and the money supply figures looked healthier than expected. QE needs to be stopped sooner rather than later but rates should stay put for now.” SIMON WARD | HENDERSON “Suspend QE and signal an intention to begin normalising [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE BRITISH AIRWAYS’ STAFF RIGHT TO STRIKE? December 14, 2009 BOB AYERS | BULLIVANT & PARTNERS “The timing to strike over the Christmas period could not be more cruel. I really can’t understand why the staff have decided to strike bearing in mind BA’s dismal performance. It will damage the company, no doubt, and striking staff are unlikely to achieve much.” STUART PHILLIMORE | ROYAL [...]
Bank gave secret 62bn loan to HBOS and RBS November 24, 2009 THE Bank of England has revealed for the first time that it lent Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HBOS £61.6bn in a bid to save the financial system from collapse. Governor Mervyn King yesterday admitted a secret deal had been done last November as the lenders struggled for survival. But the undercover nature of [...]