“The (CNI’s) economic intelligence division … is investigating whether investors’ attacks and the aggressiveness of some Anglo-Saxon media are driven by market forces and challenges facing the Spanish economy – or whether there is something more behind this campaign,” El País said.

The Financial Times has been especially critical of the government’s handling of the Spanish economy in recent weeks. It has been joined by the Economist and other publications which have questioned Zapatero’s economic management.

Following up on a first orientation debate on the subject in January, the Eurogroup is also due to have a discussion on the surveillance of competitiveness developments and imbalances within the euro area. In its report on the first 10 years of Economic and Monetary Union (see EMU@10 : http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/publication_summary12680_en.htm , the Commission concluded that macroeconomic surveillance needed to be broadened to include divergences in competitiveness and imbalances and the Eurogroup members endorsed this view. For a recently published analysis of the issue see special report in the first quarterly report of 2009:

Although all three options are said to be under consideration, it is believed that Mr Spencer would rather concentrate on fast growing and successful parts of ICAP including the post-trade division, electronic brokerage and over-the-counter derivatives.

Following weekend press comment, ICAP confirms that the group is conducting a broad ranging strategic review of some of its cash equities businesses. A further announcement will be made once the review is completed.

Icap’s confirmation on Monday morning that it is “conducting a broad ranging strategic review of some of its cash equities businesses” marks a rare mis-step by Michael Spencer, the interdealer broker’s founder and chief executive.

Back in December 2008, when the devastation from the Lehman Brothers collapse was in full view, Icap decided this was the perfect time to branch out into cash equities. It was a departure for a firm founded on over-the-counter derivatives trading.

It was thought there was an opportunity to take the ground that had been occupied by mid-tier players like ABN Amro, Dresdner Kleinwort and Bear Stearns.

Icap hired two people to spearhead the push: Glenn Poulter, who had been head of European equities trading sales at Citi, and Daryl Bowden, formerly at UK broker Execution.

The two men decided that now was the perfect time to recruit talent: carnage in the City meant that top equities sales and trading people and research analysts could be scooped up for nothing. It took them only 15 minutes to persuade Mr Spencer at the time to proceed with the plan, which eventually saw Icap hiring 210 people globally. One of their top hires was Phil Hoady, who ran portfolio trading at UBS.

This made Icap the second largest net hirer of talent in the immediate aftermath of the crisis after Barclays, which was also busy bottom-fishing for talent to build up what is now a substantial equities trading business.

Icap declined to say how much it spent on the drive, but equities formed a “major part” of the £38m that Icap spent in the six months to November last year.

As sensible as that seemed, one of Icap’s first misjudgements can be seen from a slide that Mr Bowden showed on an investor roadshow in New York in March 2008: “Cash equities volumes are likely still to show significant growth”.

Sadly that hasn’t happened. Volumes are persistently low, especially in Europe, and look set to stay that way.

Revised PO at Rs290/sh
Our PO of Rs290/sh values Bharti at a standalone PE of ~11.5x Mar ‘11E and a
post-Zain PE of ~13x CY10E & EV/EBITDA of ~6.7x. The consolidated valuation
places Bharti at ~5-10% premium vs GEM wireless majors to allow for likely
stronger earnings growth of Bharti-Zain (~10%) vs GEM wireless growth at ~7%.

Clapton, 59, bought a 50% share in Cordings, which has been in Piccadilly, central London, since 1839, after it got into financial difficulties.