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The public sector pensions debate hots up with every passing day. Now the Guardian – hard on the heels of the Financial Times – reports that ‘a furious row’ has broken out between Lord Hutton, eponymous author of the recent report on pensions, and three of the UK’s largest trade unions. The unions argue that public sector pensions are affordable and that costs are actually declining as...
It used to be the case that we thought we could afford to ignore all the boring stuff we got from employers or insurance companies about pensions. Not any more. For some time it’s been difficult to open a national newspaper and not be bombarded with the latest on the horrors of private sector defined benefit pensions; too expensive, massive deficits, closure to accrual and - ultimately - thei...
The Institutional Investor Council (an umbrella organisation of the ABI, IMA and NAPF) has recently published a report following an enquiry into rights issue fees. This report tells us that “a significant portion of the fees companies pay for underwriting rights issues is not a good use of shareholders’ money.” You don’t say. Until just a few years ago, rights issue underwriting comm...
The Financial Times recently reported that “investors are sick to the back teeth of being treated like idiots” following some less than stellar performance by recent IPOs. Might those investors perhaps be pointing the finger of blame in the wrong direction when describing companies as “too greedy”? It is right for companies to seek to secure the best possible price on their IPO - tha...
So we’ve had confirmation this week of plans for the sale of High Speed One – the rail link between St Pancras and the Channel Tunnel – as the wider 12 month programme of transferring state-owned assets to the private sector gathers pace. Is this the start of the return of the good (or is that bad?) old days of privatisations, when those landmark sales of BT, BA and British Gas, to name jus...
So the OFT is to look at the fees charged by investment banks for underwriting. It’s possible of course that they will conclude that the City has indeed been operating as a cartel and that fees will be required to be charged at lower rates - but that is to miss the point. What is clear is that this is a significant issue for UK companies looking to access capital markets – and for the inves...
So Ocado, the online food retailer, is to join the stockmarket via an IPO, one of the first companies and arguably the most high profile UK candidate to do so since the financial crisis. We can expect the usual range of announcements from the company during the process; appointment of advisers, confirmation of intention to IPO, pricing range and – hopefully – a successful debut on the stockma...
In an opinion piece for Gorkana, Andy Berry, co-head of our Financial Practice, discusses how PRs can best help their clients in the current market turmoil. When the early settlers arrived in Australia in the 17th century they encountered a strange black bird that they could not identify. That it was a swan should perhaps have been obvious but the view at the time was that all swans were white. ...
