Jewellery couple set to sparkle June 21, 2009 The former owners of Links of London, John Ayton and Annoushka Ducas, are set to return to the jewellery business with the creation of a new gold collection to be named “Annoushka”. The husband and wife team pocketed £50m from the sale of Links of London in 2006. The couple acquired the new Pascal jewellery [...]
M&S to start search in Autumn June 21, 2009 High street bellwether Marks&Spencer will start the hunt for a new chief executive in September, with Sir Stuart Rose set to make an early departure next year. The City is convinced M&S will appoint an external candidate, with Justin King of J Sainsbury, Andy Bond of Asda and Kate Swann of WH Smith all considered [...]
Park and ride out the downturn June 21, 2009 The property downturn appears not to have hit road users in Mayfair: a parking space has just been put on the market for £110,000. The space is in a secure underground car park on Hill Street, below an apartment block, and is for sale on a new lease of 150 years through Wetherell estate agents. [...]
House asking prices slip back in June June 21, 2009 THE average asking price of a UK property has fallen by 0.4 per cent this month, according to data from property website Rightmove, ending the string of good housing data over the past few weeks. June marked the first fall in five months due to hesitation by sellers and continued tight credit conditions. But on [...]
ECONOMIST VIEWS: WHAT ARE THE PROSPECTS FOR THE UK HOUSING MARKET ? June 21, 2009 NICK BATES MERRILL LYNCHIt has picked up over the past few months – you’ve seen realised mortgage approvals picking up a bit from their troughs and there seem to be improvements in credit supply conditions, but supply is still relatively tight. It’s a mixed housing market at the moment and overall, a lot of the [...]
Stewart: Run of divi cuts has bottomed June 21, 2009 RENOWNED equity analyst Alex Stewart has urged income investors to stop focusing on avoiding stocks they fear will cut their dividends in the recession, as the cycle of dividend-cuts begins to slow. Stewart, who recently joined Evolution Securities from Dresdner, said income investors should instead focus on stocks that look likely to be able to [...]
Better regulation should never stifle risk-taking June 21, 2009 ALMOST as soon as this financial crisis began, policy makers, central bankers and business leaders began waxing lyrical about regulatory failure and the importance of improving regulation to ensure that such a crisis is not repeated. However, now the mist is beginning to clear and we are moving from crisis mode into the recovery period [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 21, 2009 FormjetThe alternative software firm has appointed Andrew Monk, the former chief executive of stockbroker Blue Oar, as its new chief executive. Monk previously founded and jointly ran Oriel Securities, which, like Blue Oar, he named after his rowing exploits at Oxford University. Blue Oar has since been rebranded as Astaire under new chief executive Edward [...]
Lloyds to help struggling firms June 21, 2009 Lloyds Banking Group yesterday confirmed that it will beef up its corporate restructuring team to help struggling companies battle through the recession. The bank has already increased the size of its restructuring team from 250 employees to 400 in the past 12 months, but plans to increase the headcount to 800 by the end of [...]
Banks face ‘unfair’ charges bill June 21, 2009 British banks could be facing a multi-billion pound bill, depending on the outcome of a House of Lords hearing into “unfair” bank charges, which begins this week. The case, which opens tomorrow in the upper chamber, will determine whether or not to overturn an Appeal Court decision ruling that seven banks which charged customers for [...]