The irrepressible entrepreneur December 9, 2010 MOST people will recognise Brent Hoberman as the poster boy of the first dotcom bubble. He and his co-founder Martha Lane Fox publicly listed Lastminute.com on the day the market peaked. Yet unlike so many internet businesses they rode out the crash before selling the business in 2006 for $2bn. “We hit a zeitgeist moment,” [...]
Need to know: private equity December 9, 2010 PRIVATE equity does not have a great reputation. Entrepreneurs talk about private equity offers as if they were Venus flytraps: the firms lure you in with the promise of capital and then before you know it you are trapped under their control. But at a time when bank loans are hard to come by, small [...]
Q&A BIS FUNDING December 9, 2010 Q. Does the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) have programs that help entrepreneurs? What are they? A.BIS has several programs that can give extra funding to entrepreneurs. Chief among them are the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) and the Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF). EFGs are bank loans intended for small and medium sized enterprises [...]
Fall in mining shares takes its toll as FTSE 100 closes lower December 8, 2010 WEAKNESS in heavyweight miners dragged the leading share index lower yesterday, although firmer banks, energy issues and some takeover speculation helped limit the falls. At the close, the FTSE 100 was down 13.92 points or 0.2 per cent at 5,794.53, having hit a three-week high on Tuesday. “It has been a choppy trading session today [...]
Bank share surge boosts Wall Street December 8, 2010 US stocks edged higher yesterday as gains in financial and technology stocks offset declines caused by a recent surge in bond yields. Bank stocks have risen 10 per cent since the start of the month as benchmark yields climbed enough to make lending and trading more profitable. “What’s giving the financials a little boost is [...]
Unwrapping a complex fund: the need for transparency December 8, 2010 TRANSPARENCY has been one of the buzzwords of exchange-traded funds (ETF) since they arrived here in Europe just over a decade ago. Providers have been keen to push just how transparent their products are. But the way that synthetic ETFs are created has clouded the issue somewhat, especially in the wake of the financial crisis. [...]
A winning investment in Russia ETFs December 8, 2010 BARING Asset Managers were probably the only people in England to find an upside to Russia winning the bid to host the 2018 World Cup last week. They believe that the win offers us a better case for investing in the emerging giant. Indeed, the improved infrastructure and reputation that comes with hosting the Cup [...]
THE TIPSTER December 8, 2010 Retailers have had mixed results recently with supermarket Tesco announcing bumper numbers and Game Group doing the opposite. HMV steps up to the plate today and investors will want to know if the Christmas season is providing a welcome uptick in sales. The share price has performed poorly so far in 2010 but it seems [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS December 8, 2010 HSBC UNVEILS NEW TURKEY ETF HSBC yesterday listed its MSCI Turkey exchange-traded fund (ETF), expanding its range of exchange-traded funds on offer in Europe to 12. The ETF offers exposure to the total return performance of the MSCI Turkey Index. Like all other HSBC ETFs, the Turkey product will employ physical replication. It has a total [...]
Christmas networking tips December 8, 2010 NETWORKING GURU IT’S party season: your best chance in the whole year to make new contacts. Here are five steps to better networking. 1. SMILE. “It makes you both more relaxed and positive,” says networking expert Daphne Thissen. Also, keep eye contact when talking, and respond to what people are saying. “It makes people feel [...]