Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks announces intention to float with IPO in UK and Australia December 14, 2015 Clydesdale Bank today announced its intention to float on both the London and Australian stock exchanges. The British banking business, which is currently owned by National Australia Bank (NAB), confirmed plans for a demerger and initial public offering (IPO) in Februrary of next year. Clydesdale, which includes Yorkshire bank and is called CYBG Group in official documents, is [...]
Circle Oil share price crashes as it mulls debt restructuring and rights issue to weather oil price rout December 14, 2015 Shares in Circle Oil crashed today, after the oil producer said it was considering a debt restructuring or rights issue to weather the turmoil sparked by plunging oil prices. Circle Oil shares fell as much as 40 per cent to 2.25p per share today, amid a reevaluation of the value of its reserves which determines how [...]
Shoe fits for Cinven as it takes home Kurt Geiger December 14, 2015 Kurt Geiger is changing hands for the third time in four years after being snapped up by private equity group Cinven. The group’s management and its backers Sycamore Partners have sold the 52 year-old footwear chain to Cinven in a deal thought to be worth around £250m. The sale is the latest in a string [...]
Royal Dutch Shell to make 2,800 redundant as £47bn BG merger clears final hurdle as Chinese authorities give go-ahead December 14, 2015 Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is to make 2,800 jobs redundant globally as part of its £47bn mega-merger with BG, equivalent to three per cent of its total workforce. The jobs will be shed as part of a major restructure that will see BG's business rolled into Shell's when the two companies merge next yaer. [...]
Commodities rout, competition issues and zero-hours contracts: Here’s Santa Plc’s annual report December 14, 2015 Last year Morning Wire reported that after the financial crisis Santa Claus was in line for his merriest Christmas in years. But things are looking decidedly less festive in 2015. At the top of his naughty list this year? Governments, we suspect, who have not only created controversy over the zero-hours contracts he (probably) uses to [...]
Greene King boss Rooney Anand joins Morrisons’ board December 14, 2015 The chief executive of Greene King, Rooney Anand, has been appointed as non-executive director and senior independent director of the supermarket Morrisons. Anand, whose career includes stints at United Biscuits and Sara Lee, before joining Greene King as managing director in 2001, will join the board from 1 January. His appointment is one of several key hires [...]
AB InBev to list on Johannesburg Stock Exchange as mega-brew deal with SabMiller nears completion December 14, 2015 Belgian-based brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev has received the green light to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange ahead of its merger with SabMiller. The firm said the move demonstrated its "commitment" to South Africa and the continent as a whole "which will be a critical driver of future growth for the company" after the merger. Once listed, AB InBev's ordinary [...]
HSBC and Citibank are struggling to meet new regulations on banks based outside of the European Economic Area December 14, 2015 High street banks in the UK that are based outside of the European Economic Area are rushing to comply with new regulations that could leave senior bankers based abroad to be held accountable for failings in branches. From March 2016 managers at banks such as Citibank based in the US could be made to be [...]
TalkTalk style cyber attacks on firms could be set to worsen next year December 14, 2015 Hackers will increasingly use distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to knock websites offline and dodge cyber security, businesses are being warned. Experts predict that business is likely to see an increase in the use of DDoS attacks being used as a smokescreen to distract IT teams. Labelled “dark DDoS”, this technique was reportedly used by [...]
Pearson, Bellway, SThree: Best of the Brokers for 14 December 2015 December 14, 2015 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to [email protected] It’s been a bad few days for publisher Pearson, after a whole host of analysts sent the share price down by cutting its profit expectations. Deutsche Bank cut its price target on Pearson shares from 950p to 770p, while Jefferies’ David Reynolds slashed [...]