What the Finance

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April 8, 2011

Paul Canning HIG Europe’s MD

HIG Capital was one of the standout investment firms in 2010 and has continued to beat expectations during the first quarter of 2011. The private equity firm based in Miami, USA, purchased 12 companies between February 2010 and March 2011, including the buyout of the well known Aircom international – the world’s largest independent provider of optimisation services and network planning for the mobile telecom industry.

Part of the company’s recent success has been from its European branch located in London, UK. HIG created the European branch in 2007 and has seen that area of their company increase quite rapidly, with the UK lead division gaining twice as many employees during 2010.

Paul Canning is a HIG Capital Managing Director within the London team and has been one of the main reasons for the company’s success over the past 3 years. Paul’s career path is quite interesting. He rose through the ranks, after gaining a B.A. in Accountancy and Economics from Strathclyde University.

Continue Reading »

September 4, 2010

Free accounting software? I’d rather pay…

pc-failureI was looking for a free online bookkeeping solution to suggest to a friend when I came across Numia.biz software. I got interested so I started reading the website to collect as much information as possible so I can make an informative suggestion. The first thing that caught my attention is that this company did not offer any other version of the software at all. Continue Reading »

December 18, 2009

General Motors is Shutting Sweden’s Saab

GM is shedding the Saab, Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac brands to focus on Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.

September 14, 2009

Greek Economy News September 2009

flymoneyThis particular post goes out to all my good Greek friends that insist stubbornly – or you wouldn’t be Greeks ;) – that the global credit crisis has not affected Greece. It goes without saying that this is not true and I could if I would explain in much detail but as an analyst I always tend to prefer to let the numbers talk for themselves…

The National Statistical Service of Greece has recently published the unemployment report for June 2009. The report shows a rise in unemployed people from 7.3% in June 2008 to 8.6% in June 2009. The total number of employed remained pretty much unchanged where the non-economically active population of Greece has decreased from 4,314.8 thousands last year to 4,265.6 in June 2009. Continue Reading »

September 11, 2009

Greek Banks News Update September 2009

bankmanAlpha Bank announced on the 31st of August the completion of the sale of treasury shares. The bank confirmed it has sold through almost 1.50% of the bank’s issued common voting shares to an institutional investor through a private placement. Over 6 million treasury shares were transferred to the institutional investor at a sale price of 12.12 euro per each share. Continue Reading »

July 9, 2009

Currency Market Snapshot

Currency Market Snapshot

 

Open

High

Low

EURUSD

1.38837

1.39351

1.38587

EURGBP

0.86386

0.865175

0.86288

GBPUSD

1.60725

1.61255

1.60295

EURJPY

128.952

130.018

128.092

USDJPY

92.8825

93.5175

92.38

 

 

 

 

Commentary: Yen crosses stabilise following a heavy selling. US equities closed falt and the Nikkei was down by 1.38%. The Aussie, USD and EUR rallied against the Yen as investors took profit on risk trades on short covering. The previous support levels are now considered the key sell levels as the market is selling in to any rallies.

Data due today:

06.00 GMT – German Consumer Price Index exp 0.4% for June

06.00 GMT – German Consumer Price Index YoY exp 0.1% for June

06.00 GMT – German Trade Balance exp Euro 9.0 Billion for May

06.00 GMT – German Current Account exp Euro 3.7 Billion for May

06.00 GMT – German Imports exp 0.8% for May

06.00 GMT – German Exports exp 1.5% for May

08.00 GMT – ECB Monthly Report for July

08.30 GMT – U.K. Visible Trade Balance exp Deficit Gbp 6.75 Billion for May

08.30 GMT – U.K. Total Trade Balance exp Deficit Gbp 2.85 Billion for May

11.00 GMT – BOE Rate Announcement exp No Change at 0.5%

12.15 GMT – Canada Housing Starts exp 130,000 for June

12.30 GMT – U.S. Initial Jobless Claims exp 603,000

14.00 GMT – U.S. Wholesale Inventories exp -1.0% for May

June 30, 2009

UK Economy Contraction 2009

The UK economy shrank by 2.4% in the first quarter of the year in what is now thought to be the biggest contraction since 1958, the Office for National Statistics reported today in London. The median estimate in an earlier Bloomberg survey of about 30 economists was a 2.1% decline.

The construction activity fell by 6.9%, three times as much as initially predicted. The UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is now estimated to plunge by 4.3% in 2009, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development reported on 24th of June. Continue Reading »

June 17, 2009

Sucker’s rally to an end?

European stocks declined for a fourth day signalling fears that the first quarter’s sucker’s rally (as it is very nicely put) is coming to an end. For those who still haven’t understood what a sucker’s rally is, this is that!

Stock prices have risen substantially (some over 80%) over the past 3 months but was this rise justified? Theory says that prices go up when earnings expectations rise. As we are counting almost 2 years into the worst recession of the modern times, I really cannot see how anyone expects earnings to go up. What we do expect and hope is for their (and ours!) debt to go down! And this is what is happening. We have actually funded their debt repayments in a barely disguised stockmarket trap. Continue Reading »

May 27, 2009

General Motors Bankruptcy Facts

General Motors, the once-upon-a-time largest US automaker is finally coming to terms with the bankruptcy scenarios that have been around for the past year or so.

GM had so far used up $19.4 billiion in US Treasury loans but billions more are needed to keep the giant running. So the suggested a deal to their existing bondholders… an exchange offer that got easily rejected. Continue Reading »

May 21, 2009

HIG Capital and their European affiliate

HIG Capital is one of the of the leading global private equity companies. The firm’s Head Quarters are based in Miami, USA and they have offices in Boston, New York, Atlanta and San Francisco. The business currently has over $8.5 billion of capital under investment and over 200 portfolio companies. HIG’s funds include private equity, growth equity, real estate, debt/credit and public equities.

HIG Capital created HIG Europe to specialise in European investments. The company has a €600 million European fund with offices in France, the UK and Germany. They have a team of over 40 investment professionals and are lead by 6 Managing Directors including; Paul Canning and Matthias Allgaier.

Continue Reading »

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