News

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

Post strike costs London 500m as talks restart

October 25, 2009

POSTAL strikes are set to cost London more than £500m in lost business, the London Chamber of Commerce (LCCI) will reveal today. The news comes as fresh talks open up between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union (CWU), mediated by Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress. CWU members walked out [...]
Tullett files US lawsuit against BGC

October 25, 2009

TULLETT Prebon has filed a $1bn (£609.4m) lawsuit against arch-rival BGC Partners in the US, just days after a legal action between the pair opened in the High Court in London. Documents filed by Tullett at the district court of New Jersey allege that BGC poached 81 brokers from its New Jersey and New York [...]
Forte in talks over restructuring

October 25, 2009

Hotels veteran Sir Rocco Forte is understood to be in talks with his business partner, the high street bank HBOS, about a restructuring to enable the company to ride out the economic downturn. Rocco Forte Collection, his joint venture with the state-backed unit of Lloyds Banking Group, runs luxury accommodation including Edinburgh’s Balmoral Hotel and [...]
Bluegold hedge fund goes Swiss

October 25, 2009

Bluegold – one of the fastest-growing hedge funds based in London – has opened up a shop in Geneva to provide a base for traders who want to move from the UK to a jurisdiction with lower rates of taxation. The fund, which has around £1bn under management, is up by 65 per cent so [...]
Food boss defects to rival

October 25, 2009

Philip Jansen, head of the European division of French catering giant Sodexo, is to join rival food firm Brakes as CEO.
RBS seeking to restrict its APS exposure

October 25, 2009

Royal Bank of Scotland is working on plans to slash the value of toxic assets it dumps in the government’s asset protection scheme (APS) by up to £60bn. The nationalised bank declined to comment on growing speculation over the weekend that it will reduce its exposure to the APS. Rival Lloyds Banking Group is preparing [...]
Hedge fund guru George Soros claims bonus anger is justified

October 25, 2009

BILLIONAIRE investor George Soros at the weekend became the latest high-profile financier to wade into the bonus debate as he claimed the backlash against banking fat cats on lucrative pay deals is justified. Speaking in an interview about large profits reported in recent weeks by Wall Street’s biggest banks, Soros said: “Those earnings are not [...]
Crack down on credit cards

October 25, 2009

The government will tomorrow outline a crack down on credit card operators in a bid to give customers a better deal. Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday said he wants to make “reform of the financial sector a reality” and force the credit card industry to clean up its act. Credit card debt in Britain has [...]
Galleon probe extends reach

October 25, 2009

PROSECUTORS investigating UShedge fund Galleon have issued a subpoena to a former employee of SAC Capital Advisors, broadening the insider-trading enquiry. The subpoena was sent to Richard Grodin, who worked for Stephen Cohen’s SAC Capital, but neither he nor Cohen is accused of any wrong-doing. It is the first indication that the net is widening [...]
Bank of Ireland will not tap shareholders again in 2009

October 25, 2009

BANK of Ireland is unlikely to tap shareholders for cash to shore up its finances this year due partly to problems in setting up Ireland’s new “bad bank”, it emerged yesterday. Delays in passing laws to create the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) mean Bank of Ireland is not expected to launch a rights issue [...]