News

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

Conygar to raise 60m in placing

September 15, 2009

Property trading and development group Conygar said yesterday it intends to raise at least £60m via a share placing at 105p per share, to position it to take advantage of UK investment opportunities as the property market begins to show signs of recovery. The firm, which has just agreed a £28.8m takeover of The Advantage [...]
Anite warns on first half profit

September 15, 2009

IT services firm Anite warned yesterday it expects first half profit to come in significantly lower than last year, due to less favourable currency movements and seasonality as well as the impact of the economic downturn. “As we expected, trading for the year to date has been challenging,” the firm said in a statement. “The [...]
PROPERTY FUND GURUS HEDGING THEIR BETS

September 15, 2009

ISN’T IT astonishing to discover the lengths to which advisers will go to finesse their PR message? Yesterday, City PM ran a piece about the UK Strategic Income Property Fund. It will be managed by Coba Asset Management’s Graham Gould and BDO Stoy Hayward Investment Management, while advisers include industry veteran and former Slough Estates [...]
City warns of flaws in living wills proposal

September 15, 2009

THE CITY yesterday flagged up flaws in proposals that will force banks to write “living wills” to help regulators wind them up in the event that they collapse.Chancellor Alistair Darling said yesterday that the government was planning to introduce legislation in November which would require banks to make their corporate structures more simple and provide [...]
WOULD LIVING WILLS FOR BANKS BE A GOOD IDEA OR NOT?

September 15, 2009

NIC CLARKE CHARLES STANLEYLiving wills would not be simple to draw up and might prove to be far more complicated for some banks to implement than others. But a safety valve needs to be imposed which would mean that no institution is ‘too big to fail’, as a bank could be wound up quickly, with [...]
German sentiment disappoints

September 15, 2009

German market sentiment rose less than expected in September, dampening hopes that Europe’s biggest economy could be headed for a strong recovery. The ZEW economic think tank said that its expectations index for Germany rose to 57.7 from 56.1 in August, its highest point since April 2006, but still much less than analysts expected. The [...]
Depressed Brits turn to herbs

September 15, 2009

UK vitamins & supplements company Neutrahealth yesterday said that sales of St John’s Wort – the herbal anti-depressant – has increased by 10 per cent as people struggle to come to terms with job losses or the inability to find new jobs. The group said revenue rose by 43 per cent in the six months [...]
Dunelm sales surge in downturn

September 15, 2009

Homewares retailer Dunelm yesterday reported a surge in recent sales growth and said it planned to create up to 1,000 jobs this financial year, boosting its shares 16 per cent to a new high. Dunelm, which sells products like curtains, bedding, blinds, rugs and lighting, said sales at stores open at least a year jumped [...]
POLL: UK FACING INSURER EXODUS

September 15, 2009

OVER 60 per cent of top executives at Britain’s insurance firms are feeling tempted to leave the UK because of high taxes, a poll reveals today. The survey of 75 chief executives and finance directors also showed growing pessimism about the competitiveness of the City, with 80 per cent predicting the number of insurers based [...]
Bernanke: recession over at last

September 15, 2009

FEDERAL Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke last night said that the worst US recession since the Great Depression was probably over – but he warned that the recovery would be slow and painful. In declaring the recession over, Bernanke went slightly beyond the Fed’s most recent assessment that the economy was levelling off and that indications [...]