News

Your daily news update straight from the City PM newsroom in London

British Airways staff to vote on Christmas strike action

November 8, 2009

Passengers flying on British Airways over Christmas are bracing themselves for mayhem after 2,500 cabin crew backed union leaders’ decision to call a strike vote at a mass meeting. The ballot – in protest over the company’s imposed job cuts and two-year pay freeze – will start next week and close on 14 December. Unite [...]
SAC Capital set to be probed

November 8, 2009

One of America’s largest hedge funds, SAC Capital, is expected to be probed by Wall Street regulators as part of a widening investigation into insider trading. Richard Choo Beng has agreed to furnish government prosecutors with information about the hedge fund where he worked between 1999 and 2004 and certain transactions. Neither SAC or its [...]
Vodafone to make more cuts

November 8, 2009

Vodafone is expected to announced a new wave of cost cuts when it reports its interim results tomorrow. Analysts say the firm is likely to raise its target for cost-cutting from £1bn by March 2011, to £1.5bn. Vodafone is expected to report £21.6bn of revenue for the six months to 30 September, up 8.3 per [...]
Call of Duty to beat records

November 8, 2009

In fresh evidence of a buoyant gaming market, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – released tomorrow – is set to smash records for the fastest selling video game of all time. The video game has already received 2.4m pre-orders in the United States alone. Online retailer Play.com said that demand is already running 75 [...]
Axa to launch 2bn cash call

November 8, 2009

Insurance giant AXA is plotting a €2bn (£1.8bn) rights issue to fund potential acquisitions. It is believed that bankers BNP Paribas and HSBC have been hired to work on the capital raising. Earlier this year Axa’s senior management said that the company did not need to tap shareholders for money – but the fresh equity [...]
Blankfein: we do God’s work

November 8, 2009

Goldman Sachs chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein has launched a dramatic defence of his profession, telling a newspaper that bankers are “doing God’s work”. “We’re very important. We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more [...]
BC Partners shrugs off the recession with bumper profit

November 8, 2009

BC PARTNERS, the private equity firm whose investments include estate agent Foxtons and gym chain Fitness First, increased operating profits last year even as the recession hit leveraged buyouts. Turnover fell in what was held to be the worst year for venture capital since 2005, but overall profits grew from £4.2m in 2007 to £5.4m. [...]
Bonus row to reignite at Barclays and HSBC

November 8, 2009

BARCLAYS and HSBC will risk stirring up more public anger over bankers’ pay tomorrow when they are likely to report strong third quarter results – and bumper bonuses to match. Both Barclays and HSBC avoided taking Government cash to survive the global financial crisis but that is unlikely to protect either from criticism over the [...]
WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING FROM BARCLAYS AND HSBC THIS WEEK?

November 8, 2009

DAVID BUIK BGC PARTNERSI’m expecting both results to be exceptionally good, both Barclays and HSBC have been buoyed by investment banking. HSBC will likely make another significant writedown from its US consumer lending business which has been a noose around its neck.JUSTIN URQUHART STEWART 7 INVESTMENT MANAGEMENTThese are going to be very good results and [...]
PwC: Credit card market must innovate to survive

November 8, 2009

THE CREDIT card market needs urgent change to survive, with bad debts reaching historic highs, according to new data out today. The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Precious Plastic report will show that bad debts have reached a record six per cent, and the accountancy firm predicts that this figure will climb to nine per cent by the [...]