News

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

Johnson says it is confident on the year ahead

September 9, 2009

DRY cleaning-to-clothes-hire firm Johnson Service Group posted a surge in first-half adjusted pre-tax profit yesterday, aided by robust trading amid tough market conditions. It said it was confident of achieving satisfactory results for the year. The company also said it would resume dividend payments with an interim payout of 0.25p per share. “Against a difficult [...]
Prezzo posts profits falls as yield on cash tumbles

September 9, 2009

PIZZA restaurant chain Prezzo posted a marginal fall in first-half pre-tax profits yesterday, mainly due to a sharply reduced yield on cash assets, but said it was currently trading in line with expectations. The company said it completed the first restaurant opening of the year and confirmed there were several more in the pipeline. For [...]
ART WORLD HAILS ITS HEDGE FUND SAVIOUR

September 9, 2009

IT’S not often City folk are presented with an opportunity to make millions and do some good for the community, so hedgie supremo Mike Platt, the boss of BlueCrest Capital Management, must be pleased as punch with the way his newest venture is going. Last year, Platt teamed up with art world expert Joe La [...]
Expect a wave of City bankers suing for bonuses

September 9, 2009

AT FIRST glance the news that a group of City workers is suing a bank for refusing to pay out guaranteed bonuses seems to have few wider implications for the Square Mile’s financial institutions. According to a claim filed yesterday, 72 former Dresdner Kleinwort employees are seeking €33m (£29m) they say they were promised as [...]
Koenigsegg inks Saab deal with BAIC

September 9, 2009

LUXURY sportscar maker Koenigsegg yesterday said that China’s Beijing Automotive Industry Holding (BAIC) would take a stake in the group to help finance its purchase of Saab Automobile from General Motors. Koenigsegg said in a statement that the memorandum of understanding signed with BAIC would see the Chinese firm take a minority stake in Koenigssegg [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS

September 9, 2009

JOHN WOOD GROUPJP Morgan upgraded its rating for John Wood to “overweight” with an increased price target of 365p. The broker said that the shares are 13 per cent lower since 25 August, on concerns for Well Support’s exposure to onshore gas. It believes that these concerns are overdone and that earnings resilience is underappreciated. [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS

September 9, 2009

Piper JaffrayJens Rosebrock, pictured, joins the bank from Dresdner Kleinwort as head of clean technology investment banking. Peter Schuemers also joins as an analyst from Dresdner. Paul Lewington and Adrien Bommelaer join the technology team from Close Brothers and Credit Suisse. And in the European equity sales team, Bede Bruce-Lockhart joins as a managing director [...]
Investment banks will be hit by reform

September 9, 2009

PROFITABILITY at the world’s largest investment banks (IB’s) could tumble by as much as a third due to the impact of regulatory reform, leading to hefty staff cuts, JPMorgan Chase analysts have predicted. The bank said it expected that regulatory proposals, if they were applied, would reduce predicted return on equity (ROE) by an average [...]
Oil cause of UK’s wider trade deficit

September 9, 2009

BRITAIN’S trade deficit widened in July to £2.44bn from £2.37bn in June, driven by a £100m increase in the deficit of oil, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday. The official data showed that the UK’s deficit on trade in goods in July is provisionally estimated at £6.5bn, unchanged compared with June, while the trade [...]