France and Belgium end shorting ban February 13, 2012 REGULATORS in France and Belgium have finally lifted the bans on the short-selling of certain financial stocks, six months after they were introduced as markets plunged on Eurozone debt fears. The separate decisions, by French watchdog AMF and Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), come after a boost to market sentiment and are expected [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 7, 2012 Qatar Financial Centre Authority Bob Wigley, chairman of Yell Group and former chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, Middle East and Africa, has been appointed as a non-executive director of the Qatar Financial Centre Authority. In the new role, Wigley, who was appointed as an ambassador for UK business by David Cameron in 2011, will promote [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 5, 2012 Mastercard UK The global payment processing network has appointed Marion King as president of its UK and Ireland business. King was previously CEO of VocaLink, a payments service provider to banks, corporations and governments. Prior to this she worked at Reuters for 14 years, holding a series of senior roles, most recently as managing director [...]
It’s time to fill your diary to bursting with events for 2012 January 29, 2012 FOLLOWING in the successful footsteps of StartUp America we have StartUp Britain: “A national campaign by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, harnessing the expertise and passion of Britain’s leading businesspeople to celebrate, inspire and accelerate enterprise in the UK.” It has just unveiled StartUp 2012: The Enterprise Calendar (www.startupbritain.org/calendar), which aims to be “a new resource to [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 26, 2012 AXA Deborah Shire has been appointed as global head of business development at Axa Real Estate Investment Managers. Shire will join the AXA Real Estate management board and will report directly to CEO Pierre Vaquier. Shire is promoted from deputy head of structured finance at AXA Investment Managers, which she joined in 1998 as a [...]
BALFOUR BEATTY WINS £100M IN DEALS January 16, 2012 BALFOUR Beatty has won construction contracts in the commercial sector worth £100m. In the City of London, the company has secured a £57m contract, to build AXA Real Estate’s Sixty London prime office development (pictured). The company has also won a £25m deal to deliver an 11-storey office building in the City for Viridis Real [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD PRIORITISE HIGH SPEED RAIL OR MORE AIRPORT CAPACITY? January 11, 2012 JOE BATTLE | ANTARES “Personally I think the high-speed rail, because there has never been a real problem with airport capacity, only a bit of hustle and bustle. A decent rail network around the UK would be fantastic.” DAN SILVEY | AXA “I think the government should favour high speed rail because it is a [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 8, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES CAMERON RISKS FURY OVER EXTRA IMF CASH David Cameron has left open the door to Britain giving billions of pounds of new support to the International Monetary Fund – and indirectly to ailing members of the Eurozone – in a move likely to infuriate eurosceptic MPs in his own conservative party. Extra British [...]
Axa sells off its Denplan branch December 20, 2011 AXA UK has agreed to sell dental insurance business Denplan to Simplyhealth for £115m. The deal is cash free and debt free and comes with certain add-ons. Denplan, which has 1.8m patients, is set to report pre-tax profits of £14.1m on revenue of £55.5m this year. Health cash plan provider Simplyhealth was seen as the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 12, 2011 Cushman & Wakefield The global property consultant has expanded its EMEA sustainability team by appointing Justy Mathew as sustainability analyst, based in London. He joins from Pensions & Investment Research Consultants, where he worked on corporate social responsibility. Reporting to Andries van der Walt, head of sustainability for EMEA, Mathew will deliver sustainability consultancy for [...]