Gherkin bought by Safra Group: Meet the Brazilian-Lebanese billionaire behind the £700m deal November 10, 2014 The City's iconic Gherkin has been snapped up for more than £700m by the Safra Group, the investment giant controlled by Brazilian-Lebanese billionaire Joseph Safra. Safra, which last month won a $682m (£430m) takeover battle for banana group Chiquita, said yesterday it had agreed to buy the 590-foot tower at 30 St Mary’s [...]
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: Release date in China, India, eastern Europe, South Africa and 36 more countries revealed by Apple October 13, 2014 The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be available in another 36 countries by the end of the month, Apple has announced, the fastest ever roll out of any of its devices. The new smartphones will go on sale in the majority of countries in eastern Europe as well as large – and potentially [...]
EasyJet reports record numbers during August September 4, 2014 BUDGET airline EasyJet yesterday reported it had flown a record number of passengers in August, with 6.6m travellers on its aircraft – 8.4 per cent more than the same month last year. EasyJet’s load factor — how full the company’s planes are — was at more than 94 per cent, another record for the airline [...]
London helps to drive profits at hotelier PPHE August 28, 2014 PPHE Hotel Group, the owner of the Park Plaza at Westminster Bridge (pictured below), reported a surge in profits and revenue in the first half of the year, boosted by a rise in visitor numbers and a room price hike. The group, which owns and manages 38 art’otel and Park Plaza hotels across Europe, the [...]
This Middle East tragedy will become a catastrophe if Obama missteps now July 14, 2014 My wife recently passed along to me an almost unutterably beautiful video from the Royal Shakespeare Company. In it, Camille O’Sullivan performs “Daughter, Dear Daughter” from the Bard’s moving The Rape of Lucrece, giving voice to the universal anguish of a parent burying a child. It ends with the harrowing plea, “Then live, sweet Lucrece, [...]
France reassures Israel on Iran November 18, 2013 President Francois Hollande told Israel yesterday that France would continue to oppose an easing of economic sanctions against Iran until it was convinced Tehran had given up any pursuit of nuclear weapons. “France will not give way on nuclear proliferation,” Hollande said at a welcoming ceremony at Tel Aviv airport. “So long as we are [...]
London is no Silicon Valley – here’s why that may be a good thing October 20, 2014 Geeks and startup types are again gathering today in Billingsgate for TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference, a celebration of London’s tech sector. There’s a lot to celebrate: the sector hasn’t been this hot since the days of the dot-com boom. Investors are toasting two billion-dollar exits this year: games designers Natural Motion and artificial intelligence wizards Deep [...]
Will humans be replaced by robots? They might take some of our jobs, but they’ll also create new ones November 23, 2014 Strange, semi-human, and capable of tapping into our fear of the unknown, robots have sent shivers down our spines for decades – long before the Terminator was sent to Earth or the daleks even contemplated exterminating Dr Who. But now, the fictional threat of bloodthirsty machines has shifted to a much more real danger [...]
Clocks change 2014: Does it make financial sense to switch from BST to GMT? October 25, 2014 British Summer Time (BST) officially comes to an end tomorrow. The clocks go back an hour at 1am on 26 October, heralding the onset of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) where mornings get brighter, but evenings get darker earlier. However, while an extra hour in bed is a welcome bonus for the weekend, the [...]
The UK desperately needs a free trade alternative to costly EU membership November 3, 2014 THE ANNOUNCEMENT that the UK must stump up a further €2.1bn (£1.7bn) to finance the EU’s ballooning budget has understandably caused outrage. Not only does this demand appear to punish Britain’s relative economic success, while France and Germany are rewarded with handouts, but with Greece and Cyprus also asked to pay more, a political farce [...]