Anthony Hilton: Basham to trigger small-cap revival
24 Nov 2005 | by Anthony Hilton
The name Brian Basham probably does not mean much to the current generation of financial PR experts, but in his day he was top of the pile.
Over the past few years a sustained campaign by the CBI has put red tape and the prospect of tax increases at the centre of attention – so much so that Gordon Brown sought in his speech at a CBI dinner last Monday to establish his deregulation credentials (albeit by threatening to spike another department’s...
The name Brian Basham probably does not mean much to the current generation of financial PR experts, but in his day he was top of the pile.
February is bank reporting season, and this week and next, banks big and small, household names and some you’ve barely heard of, will tell the world how they did in 2004. By the time they have finished, UK bank profits will be seen to have topped £30bn, the biggest ever.
The Government’s decision to hire a PR firm to promote to the public the benefits of Britain’s EU membership (PRWeek, 21 January) has raised a predictable amount of fuss.
It is hard to know who will look more silly – Werner Seifert, the ex-Deutsche Boerse CEO threatening to publish a kiss and tell story of his attempted takeover of the London Stock Exchange, or the current management of Deutsche Boerse, who are trying to stop him.
These days most people associate George Davies with the Per Una fashion range in Marks & Spencer and realise that he was also the George who created ‘George at Asda’.
The Financial Times delivered quite a surprise earlier this week, as it published a table of the worst performing UK equity income funds. Who should be nestling at the bottom but New Star UK Strategic Income?
You could almost sense the relief in the weekend reports that Paul Manduca, a former City fund manager, will shortly slot into the deputy chairman’s role at Morrison’s, the supermarket chain whose reputation for northern efficiency has been tarnished by its takeover of Safeway.
Among the supermarkets, Asda appears the nicest place to work. Tesco is terribly serious, Morrisons a bit northern and brash, while Sainsbury’s is no fun at all.
Michael O’Leary is as far as you could get from the buttoned-up respectability of the City. The chief executive of Ryanair – which this week announced a 25 per cent drop in profits – is not known to let tact and discretion get in the way of a good soundbite.