News

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

Greenhill plans to divest itself of merchant banking operations

October 29, 2009

BOUTIQUE investment bank Greenhill said yesterday that it plans to spin off its merchant banking fund arm, Greenhill Capital Partners, selling the right to launch successor funds for around $25m (£15m). The company, which expects to complete the deal in the current quarter, said the purchaser will be an entity formed by Robert Niehaus, chairman [...]
OCH ZIFF SNAPS UP DEBENHAMS STAKE

October 29, 2009

HEDGE fund Och-Ziff yesterday emerged as the buyer of TPG’s stake in department store chain Debenhams after the US buyout firm made its exit from the business earlier this week. Och-Ziff, one of the world's largest hedge fund managers, said it now owns 11.52 per cent of Debenhams, headed up by chief executive Rob Templeman.
Putting the drama back into LSE share trading

October 28, 2009

XAVIER Rolet, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), is looking to rekindle some of the fun and excitement of share trading that has been lost since the bulk of the City’s traditional open outcry trading floors were closed. As City PM first revealed on Tuesday, the LSE is axing the sculpture known as [...]
Gatwick sale damages BAA

October 28, 2009

Spanish-owned BAA, the company which runs airports around the UK, reported massive losses yesterday after the forced sale of its major asset Gatwick. The company, which has come under fire from the Competition Commission (CC) for its monopoly on airport ownership around the UK, said pre-tax losses hit £784.7m, worse than a £519m loss a [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS

October 28, 2009

CADBURYInvestec said that Cadbury’s interim management statement should be good for valuations of the firm, but that a more contingent approach to the potential end-games leads it to be less bullish overall. The broker decreased its target price for the stock to 840p and downgraded its rating to “hold”. BPCitigroup said that, with BP trading [...]
Cosco profits tumble in downturn

October 28, 2009

Cosco Pacific, Asia’s third-biggest container-terminal operator, posted a 49 per cent drop in third-quarter profit yesterday as the recession hit world trade. Net income slumped to $40m (£22m) from $77.7m a year earlier, the Hong Kong-based company said. Sales fell 8.5 per cent to $83.4m, it added. Container traffic fell 4.2 per cent in the [...]
NDA selling off its Sellafield Site

October 28, 2009

A consortium of energy firms yesterday agreed an option to buy a site at Sellafield on the Cumbrian coast in northern England for a new nuclear power plant as part of the UK’s plans to replace its ageing state-built reactors. The consortium, made up of Spain’s Iberdrola, French group GDF Suez and Scottish & Southern [...]
Rugby Estates sees stability

October 28, 2009

Property group Rugby Estates yesterday reported signs of the market stabilising after narrowing its first-half losses to £0.116m, compared to a loss of £4.41m the year before. The group reported a small rise in profit from net sales to £1,085m for the six months to July. Chairman David Tye said there were now signs of [...]
City Moves for 29 October 2009 | Who’s switching jobs

October 28, 2009

Financial Services Skills CouncilThe FSSC has appointed Legal & General’s Adrian Clark and Santander’s Bernadette Brown, pictured, to its board of directors. Clark is L&G’s chief operating officer for protection throughout the UK as well as director of its Cardiff site. Brown is a human resources business partner for Santander’s UK businesses, based in the [...]
ArcelorMittal in a sombre mood as it returns to profit

October 28, 2009

ARCELORMITTAL, the world’s largest steelmaker, dampened recovery expectations yesterday with a muted forecast for the final three months of 2009 after a return to profit in the third quarter. The firm, which produces three times more steel than nearest rival Nippon and holds nearly eight per cent of the global market, said it expected its [...]