The world's largest private equity company, the Blackstone Group LP, has been revealed as the busiest dealmaker in buyouts this year.

The Second Busiest Private Equity Firm

In the same period last year, the number of private equity transactions rose by 51pc to $287 billion, according to figures released by Bloomberg. 

The Busiest Venture Capitalists

Is the UK Economy Finally Improving?

Finally some good news for the UK Economy? Some positive results were presented in the latest survey of Chief Financial Officers by Deloitte this month. The regular survey includes a range of opinions from a leading panel of CFOs in the UK's corporate sector and is valued by many as a benchmark of business confidence and economic recovery. There were a number of key points in the report.

Greater Confidence in the UK Economy

Greater Confidence and Reduced Uncertainty Those interviewed said that financial and macro-economic uncertainty had reached its lowest point since the middle of 2010. Additionally, the respondents also had greater confidence since the last monthly survey that the eurozone would stay intact.

Access to Finance is a Crucial Factor for the UK Economy

Another positive highlight was about access to cheaper lending and in greater amounts, thanks to increased credit being extended by banks and building societies. This was markedly higher than at any point since the survey began in 2007 and is a result of factors, including increased business confidence, less bad debt than expected and the success of the government's Funding for Lending (FLS) scheme.

The International Situation also impacts the UK Economy

A better situation in many international economies was also flagged up as a positive sign. This is being driven by growth in emerging markets along with escalating demand in the Asia-Pacific and US regions. This is benefitting UK exporters and those with exposure to overseas markets. Many are shifting their business operations to more expansionary strategies. This has also led to a slow but steady move away from the climate of total cost control. However, those companies which are primarily UK-focused (defined by having less than 30pc of their revenue generated through exposure to overseas markets) remain markedly more cautious about domestic growth and business prospects.

Confident Sectors

Data released by the British Chambers of Commerce, via their QES survey (a Quarterly UK Economic Survey that aggregates the responses of over 7,000 UK businesses), shows that business confidence is particularly increasing in the services and manufacturing sectors.

Contributory Factors assisting the UK Economy

This confidence boost is judged to be caused by a range of factors, but predominantly greater levels of lending from banks. Recent date from the BoE shows, however, that banks still aren't widely lending to SMEs and fast-growth start-ups and entrepreneurs have been looking for alternative finance sources such as peer-to-peer lending and crowd financing, amongst other sources. There is still access to alternative and start-up funding through government schemes such as the Start-up Loans fund for young entrepreneurs and loans extended via the Regional Growth Fund scheme, but the signs do point to more innovative solutions being embraced by the SME sector.

Written by Niraj Joshi of Circle Square Talent – Finance & Accountancy Jobs London.

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Avoiding Recruitment Discrimination

In today's employment culture, employers must not only create robust anti-discrimination procedures and develop cultures that foster equality; they must also be able to demonstrate their achievements to the outside world. Discrimination is a hot topic, as the vast numbers of tribunals will attest each year. The recruitment process is particularly vulnerable in this regard, so follow our handy guide to ensure that you minimise the risk to your business.

Recruitment Processes

Good staff training and robust processes are essential to maintaining regulatory compliance and building an equality driven culture. Ideally, draw up your processes with the aid of a HR expert, whether in-house or external, to ensure that you have the right guidance and input.

You must have a Job Description prior to Recruitment

Before you begin any recruitment activity you must, for example, have a job description in place that covers the required duties of the role, along with a person specification that details experience, skills and necessary qualifications. These documents are essential, providing a platform for the latter part of the process.

Producing a Job advertisement

Focus on the requisite key skills, experience and qualifications and include a list of duties. Be very clear about the occasions when you can specify potentially discriminatory factors, such as gender or disability. The purpose of discrimination laws is to ensure that people are treated fairly, so irrelevant factors such as religion and sexual orientation cannot form the basis of a recruiter's decision to hire or exclude a candidate. But there are exceptions. A severe physical disability, for example, might preclude a candidate from being accepted for a position that requires good health. Seek HR advice on this potentially awkward issue.

Candidate Shortlist

It may be sensible to remove the name and contact sections of each application form to encourage candidates to focus on the essentials. Try using a grid to record assessments and ensure transparency. Ensure that more than one person supports this activity to avoid bias. When you have a number of applications, begin the task of creating a shortlist of candidates.

Job Interview

Your panel should draw up a question schedule beforehand and focus only on experience and skills deemed necessary for the job. They must also be aware of subjects that they must not discuss, such as age and marital status. The interviewers must use the same process for each candidate and record their answers using a scoring sheet. Keep all paperwork for reference. Finally, these scoring sheets should be used to make the final decision. Ideally, a HR representative would attend the interview to offer additional peace of mind for all parties.

Written by Marc Dewdney of Circle Square Talent - Finance Jobs London& Accountancy Jobs London. Marc specialises in recruiting Permanent Senior Finance Candidates into Real Estate, Property and Construction firms within London and the surrounding counties. He also recruits for Investment and Media firms in Central London, and other contract and interim roles.

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The Next Lehman Scandal?

According to a Daily Telegraph report, the world may be about to witness another epic crash, only five years after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.

The newspaper has reported that another market bubble is emerging. But the situation is different this time, primarily because most policy makers, investors and market analysts are already aware of the threat and its implications.

What is driving the threat?

The threat is being driven by junk bonds. More accurately known as high-yield debts, sales of these products have grown exponentially in 2013. Even in January, Asian companies that were rated as non-investment grade sold over  9 billion of the high-yielding bonds. The year-on-year increase stands at over 6,000 per cent according to recent figures gathered by Dealogic, the data analysts.

In Europe, a similar pattern is emerging, with sales figures for junk bonds running at record levels and with high-yield debt bonds worth almost $30 billion having already been sold in 2013.

What is prompting this?

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Bankers Integrity Tested by CISI

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Testing for Bankers is Long Overdue

The Future for Bankers 

Without the CISI credentials, bankers may find that they struggle to find employment at the larger banks over time.

However, critics have warned that the new CISI initiative can only go so far in protecting savers as it simply shows bankers' theoretical knowledge of ethical practices rather than confirming that they applied integrity in their daily work. Of course, no current test can accurately predict and determine subsequent behaviour, but for most people this new development will be seen as a positive step forward.

Written by Ross Stokes of Circle Square - Financial Recruitment London

If you're not sure which career move would best suit your skills and experience take a look at our Job Profiles. 

The profiles provide advice on the qualifications, skills and experience required for each career option. The job profiles also outline salary expectation, job responsibilities and career progression: 

M&A Analyst    M&A Associate    M&A Director     M&A Vice President

If you are looking for advice we have a dedicated career advice section. Our advice is not just generic recruitment advice we have tailored advice for each of the recruitment divisions we work in including: 

executive search, accountancy & finance, temporary & interim, Real Estate, private equity, capital markets & M&A. To view our M&A Jobs

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Recruiters are warning that the current slump in the number of jobs available could be a longer-term trend, with the latest figures showing that new job creation in the City plummeted in March.

New jobs within London's Square Mile - which is often used as an informal yardstick of wider economic success due to its position within the financial and commercial sector - dropped by fifteen per cent in March compared to the previous month, could this signal a prolonged dip.

A Significant Drop in Job Creation

The firm estimated that 2,190 new jobs were created in March, which represents a worrying 31pc of activity compared to the same period in 2012. Last March, around 3,180 new appointments were advertised. And the kinds of new roles available are changing too, with many of those advertised being limited to compliance teams and specialist firms as the burden of government-led regulations and reporting requirements grows across the financial sector.

New rules come into effect this autumn to safeguard the working rights of temporary workers. 

But are employers ready for the legislative changes and who will actually benefit from them? The new legislation will protect temporary staff from being exploited as cheap labour and it follows lengthy debates between unions and employers on whether temporary staff should be afforded the same benefits and rights as permanent employees.

In line with an EU directive, a high-profile compromise was agreed between the CBI, TUC and BIS which will work to offer greater protection to temporary workers

Which is believed to comprise around 1.5 million people in the UK. The objective of the changes will be to bring parity of rights between temporary workers employed by agencies and those permanent staff employed directly by businesses.

In practice, this means that after twelve weeks in one role with the same employer, the temporary worker will be fully entitled to parity of basic pay with staff who are directly employed by the business. 

This will include extra entitlements and the hourly rate, along with other working conditions. They will also benefit from 'day one rights', which will begin when their assignment does and include access to staff canteens, childcare, transport and the right to be kept up to date about permanent roles being advertised within the business.

However, some are concerned that the new rules will create extra bureaucracy and work, particularly within agencies. And others are keen to avoid an impact on the flexible nature of temporary staff and see this market shrink.

A report by REC shows that flexible staffing is predicted to remain an economic growth linchpin, however, so these concerns may be unfounded as businesses seek to take on extra temporary workers'rather than commit to further permanent roles in the ongoing challenging economic climate. 

Industry confidence does seem to be increasing slowly and the benefits of a flexible workforce are becoming more widely valued. Experience shows thattemporary workers' are often shed first during the difficult times, but taken back the most speedily when growth returns again.

The rules may also provide a welcome opportunity for all businesses to review their employee policies in general and ensure that they are up to date with requirements. Some businesses will have hundreds of agency workers on their staffing lists, some of which may have been there for many years. For such businesses, it will be time to take stock and decide how they wish to make changes to comply with the new rules.

Business Intelligence Systems Failing to Meet Reporting and Financial-Analysis Needs

Business intelligence systems are still - even after twenty years of operation - failing to meet reporting and financial-analysis needs. At the heart of every poor decision lies an absence of quality data and the repercussions usually translate into costs.

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The fact remains that FDs are not data analysts and organisations are struggling to integrate their data from a variety of business sources.