CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK DEMAND FOR LUXURY GOODS WILL DECLINE IN THE CURRENT ECONOMIC DOWNTURN? July 28, 2009 DAN BUNTING BANKER“I think that people who can afford them in the first place will continue to buy luxury items. On the other hand, maybe those who are sensible will save. I suppose it is also wage dependent, just as many expenditures are.” MEL DIXON AZTEC“No, I don’t think so. The market can’t withstand luxuries [...]
Canny traders should look to buy crude oil on the correction July 27, 2009 CRUDE’S inexorable rise over the past few weeks in line with rallying equity markets pushed September Brent through the $70 a barrel mark in intraday trading yesterday, touching a session high of $71.28. Signs of an improving world economy and resilient Chinese GDP growth as well as relatively upbeat second quarter earnings in the US [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 26, 2009 ExecutionThe agency broker has appointed Bruce Howitt, formerly a director of Merrill Lynch’s fixed income business, to head up its newly created agency credit division. Howitt, who will become head of European credit at Execution, previously spent six years with Merrill Lynch, where he managed the non-financials trading desk. He has also formerly held senior [...]
UKFI close to naming chair July 26, 2009 UK FINANCIAL Investments (UKFI) – the body which manages the government’s stakes in Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland – will have a new chairman within weeks, sources said yesterday. The Treasury is leading the search for a candidate to chair UKFI and is believed to have placed Sir David Cooksey, a former [...]
Meet the deal-maker extraordinaire who hopes the crisis will end in 2010 July 26, 2009 It is hard to escape the feeling that Slaughter and May’s Nigel Boardman is ever so slightly bored. Given that he is London’s top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyer, and that we are still in the midst of a bitter recession which has led to a dramatic reduction in deal-making, this is not exactly surprising. [...]
City Moves who’s switching jobs July 23, 2009 Stephenson HarwoodThe international law firm has hired Duncan Stiles to its corporate practice, specialising in public and private M&A transactions, primarily for FTSE 100 and 250 clients. Stiles joins from rival Ashurst, where he spent over 18 years and became a partner in 2000. In addition to building up a successful M&A practice, he also [...]
Cable would carve up rescued lenders July 20, 2009 AS Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne was laying out his blueprint for regulatory reform, Liberal Democrat counterpart Vince Cable was proposing his own solutions to the financial crisis, including the break-up of Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. Speaking at the London Stock Exchange, Cable said: “The Lloyds-HBOS merger should be unscrambled … [...]
IS YOUR VIEW OF PETER HAMBRO MINING BOOSTED BY THE GOLD RUSH? July 20, 2009 CHARLIE GIBSON EDISON RESEARCHThe update is good stuff and is in-line with what they outlined in terms of full-year goals. There are no details on costs but those will come with the interims in about a month. I think the stock is still a ‘Hold’ for now, unless you believe the gold price is going [...]
City’s most successful accountant still has plenty of fire in his belly July 20, 2009 IT IS EASY to tell when you are nearing , Deloitte boss John Connolly’s office because an awful lot of people you bump into in the firm’s corridors begin to ask about his welfare. “Is John in?” asks one, a tad nervously. “What mood is he in today?” asks another. There is a feeling of [...]
London house asking prices turn positive July 19, 2009 AVERAGE asking prices for properties in London are higher now than they were a year ago, while the yearly decline for England and Wales was trimmed to 3.1 per cent, according to property website Rightmove. Rightmove figures show that the average asking price for a UK house rose by 0.6 per cent in July on [...]