Close Brothers banking division grew its loan book by 13% to £4.6bn over the 12 months. Between 2009 and 2012 Close Brothers increased its lending to SMEs by 20% year-on-year as it took advantage of high street banks pulling out of the SME market. Chief executive Preben Prebensen said in his joint statement with chairman Strone Macpherson: “It is clear that trust in the financial services sector and consumer confidence continue to be low. Despite this, we have successfully continued to build our business through the cycle, supporting SMEs as their businesses grow.” Close Brothers Commercial loan book grow 13% to £1.8bn on the back of a 12% increase in asset finance loans to £1.5bn and an 18% hike in the invoice finance loan book, from £308.7m to £363.4m. Prebensen said: “There is widespread recognition of the role SMEs will play in the economic recovery, but they remain under-served by the banking sector. “We currently lend to over 23,000 SMEs in our commercial businesses and we believe that our cautious, high-quality credit underwriting and service-led approach together with our reputation as a trusted, reliable lender place us in a strong position for further growth in this market.”...

Yesterday, private investors were informed of their allocation, which was scaled back to 227 shares (£749.10 worth at the 330p offer price) for applications up to £10,000; those who applied for more than £10,000 of shares received nothing. The IPO was hugely oversubscribed, with 700,000 private investors applying for the retail portion of the offering, which comprised 30% of the shares being sold (the remaining 70% went to institutional investors). According to BBC business editor Robert Peston, investors applied for a combined £27bn worth of shares, which at the top of their 260-330p offer range were priced at just £1.7bn. This has inevitably lead to repeated claims that the government priced the offering too cheaply. Peston said: “A 36% gap between market price and privatisation price is far wider than would normally be thought necessary to whet punters’ appetite for future privatisations.” However, business secretary Vince Cable told the Today programme that the majority of the shares had gone to “long-term stable investors”, adding that where the share price settled in three or six months’ time was more important than any short-term volatility. “You get an enormous amount of froth and speculation in the aftermath of a big IPO of this kin,” he said. “The bulk of the shares have gone to long-term institutional investors, stable investors, some overseas investors, but mainly British pension funds and insurance companies who are there for the long term. “The objective of the exercise, which fits in with what we want for the Royal Mail, is to make sure it has stable, long-term investors.” So far the government has sold a 52% stake in Royal Mail and given away a further 10% to Royal Mail employees, each of whom have received around £2,200 worth of shares (except for the 371 of Royal Mail’s 150,000 employees that opted out of the share offer). According to Peston, around 15,000 Royal Mail employees applied for shares worth a combined £52m in the retail offering (on top of their free allocation) and have had their applicatications met in full up to £10,000. Royal Mail staff will not be able to sell their shares for 12 months. Of the government’s remaining 38% stake, a further 8% (the over-allotment option) is likely to be sold in the coming 30 days; while the final 30% stake could be sold next summer. The CWU, which is currently balloting its members for strike action against the privatisation, staged a demonstration outside the London Stock Exchange this morning, with demonstrators dressed as robbers with swag bags representing “private investors being allowed to steal public assets”. CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: “The massive jump in the share price confirms that the government and...

Yesterday, private investors were informed of their allocation, which was scaled back to 227 shares (£749.10 worth at the 330p offer price) for applications up to £10,000; those who applied for more than £10,000 of shares received nothing. The IPO was hugely oversubscribed, with 700,000 private investors applying for the retail portion of the offering, which comprised 30% of the shares being sold (the remaining 70% went to institutional investors). According to BBC business editor Robert Peston, investors applied for a combined £27bn worth of shares, which at the top of their 260-330p offer range were priced at just £1.7bn. This has inevitably lead to repeated claims that the government priced the offering too cheaply. Peston said: “A 36% gap between market price and privatisation price is far wider than would normally be thought necessary to whet punters’ appetite for future privatisations.” However, business secretary Vince Cable told the Today programme that the majority of the shares had gone to “long-term stable investors”, adding that where the share price settled in three or six months’ time was more important than any short-term volatility. “You get an enormous amount of froth and speculation in the aftermath of a big IPO of this kin,” he said. “The bulk of the shares have gone to long-term institutional investors, stable investors, some overseas investors, but mainly British pension funds and insurance companies who are there for the long term. “The objective of the exercise, which fits in with what we want for the Royal Mail, is to make sure it has stable, long-term investors.” So far the government has sold a 52% stake in Royal Mail and given away a further 10% to Royal Mail employees, each of whom have received around £2,200 worth of shares (except for the 371 of Royal Mail’s 150,000 employees that opted out of the share offer). According to Peston, around 15,000 Royal Mail employees applied for shares worth a combined £52m in the retail offering (on top of their free allocation) and have had their applicatications met in full up to £10,000. Royal Mail staff will not be able to sell their shares for 12 months. Of the government’s remaining 38% stake, a further 8% (the over-allotment option) is likely to be sold in the coming 30 days; while the final 30% stake could be sold next summer. The CWU, which is currently balloting its members for strike action against the privatisation, staged a demonstration outside the London Stock Exchange this morning, with demonstrators dressed as robbers with swag bags representing “private investors being allowed to steal public assets”. CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: “The massive jump in the share price confirms that the government and...

The 64+4pp magazine, which contains essays by Sophie Dahl, as well as short stories, interviews and pictures, was curated by Jamie Cullum and assembled by Simon Tapscott and graphic designer Kate Monument, who also worked on Cullum’s first album Heard it all before. “The magazine isn’t about me necessarily, but about things that I’m interested in,” said Cullum. “I’m really interested in journalism and writing, and I know so many writers, so I thought I could have a go and get some friends involved. “Not many people know that I did English literature and typography, so I got to indulge my passion for fonts and design.” It also includes an exclusive rollfold sheet music throw out featuring a transcription of a previously unavailable song titled ‘Don’t wait to love’, which was transcribed by bandmember and multi-instrumentalist Tom Richards. The 8pp music sheet was folded to 260x200mm portrait and alligned to the top of the inside back cover of the 270x210mm magazine. The cover was printed on 350gsm Rives Linear Bright White, while the text was printed on 110gsm Edixion offset with a 16pp coloured section on Coloraction Pale Salmon (Savana); the music sheet throw out was printed on 140gsm Edixion offset. The magazine was printed 4/4 using standard process offset inks plus neon yellow special (PMS 809U); the 16pp coloured paper section was printed black only. Pages were sealed throughout and a circular sticker was applied to the outside cover. PCP produced 3,100 copies of The Eighty-Eight using a Mitsubishi 3H/6+c for the cover and a 10 unit Heidelberg SM102 B1 perfector for the text. According to the company, the main challenge in producing the magazine was aligning the 8pp sheet music throw out to make sure it fell short of the binding edge as well as the trimmed edge and so the folds fell accurately between the song sheets. The Eighty-Eight is available to order from myplaydirect.com/jamie-cullum and will be sold at venues on the Momentum tour....

The 64+4pp magazine, which contains essays by Sophie Dahl, as well as short stories, interviews and pictures, was curated by Jamie Cullum and assembled by Simon Tapscott and graphic designer Kate Monument, who also worked on Cullum’s first album Heard it all before. “The magazine isn’t about me necessarily, but about things that I’m interested in,” said Cullum. “I’m really interested in journalism and writing, and I know so many writers, so I thought I could have a go and get some friends involved. “Not many people know that I did English literature and typography, so I got to indulge my passion for fonts and design.” It also includes an exclusive rollfold sheet music throw out featuring a transcription of a previously unavailable song titled ‘Don’t wait to love’, which was transcribed by bandmember and multi-instrumentalist Tom Richards. The 8pp music sheet was folded to 260x200mm portrait and alligned to the top of the inside back cover of the 270x210mm magazine. The cover was printed on 350gsm Rives Linear Bright White, while the text was printed on 110gsm Edixion offset with a 16pp coloured section on Coloraction Pale Salmon (Savana); the music sheet throw out was printed on 140gsm Edixion offset. The magazine was printed 4/4 using standard process offset inks plus neon yellow special (PMS 809U); the 16pp coloured paper section was printed black only. Pages were sealed throughout and a circular sticker was applied to the outside cover. PCP produced 3,100 copies of The Eighty-Eight using a Mitsubishi 3H/6+c for the cover and a 10 unit Heidelberg SM102 B1 perfector for the text. According to the company, the main challenge in producing the magazine was aligning the 8pp sheet music throw out to make sure it fell short of the binding edge as well as the trimmed edge and so the folds fell accurately between the song sheets. The Eighty-Eight is available to order from myplaydirect.com/jamie-cullum and will be sold at venues on the Momentum tour....