The Bottle Opener: How wine buffs should spend that bonus April 1, 2014 CHATEAU Pontet-Canet, a lovely domaine in Paulliac but normally overshadowed by its more famous neighbours, has been making the headlines recently. Last week it announced the price of its 2013 wines, €60 a bottle in bond, the same price as 2012. So what? you might ask. Well you see, this is the week the world’s [...]
Randgold boss warns on mine output in 2014 January 26, 2014 PRODUCTION from the Tongon gold mine in Cote d’Ivoire will miss management’s expectations in 2014, the chief executive of FTSE 100-quoted miner Randgold Resources has admitted. The Tongon mine is expected to produce 260,000 ounces this year, which is an increase on 2013’s gold output but slightly behind the internal target, Mark Bristow told a [...]
Bottom Line: Upbeat Witty sets his company a high bar February 5, 2014 FORGET the Chinese whispers surrounding GlaxoSmithKline’s problems in the Far East – chief executive Sir Andrew Witty is shouting from the rooftops. His bullish message yesterday could not have been clearer – Glaxo’s pipeline is thick and healthy; threats from generic competition are overstated anyway; the firm is in pole position to benefit from emerging [...]
Dealer.com picked up for $1bn December 19, 2013 Dealertrack Technologies, which makes software used by car dealerships, will acquire Dealer.com for around $1bn (£610m) in cash and stock from Apax Funds. “Dealer.com and its team, whom we’ve long admired and respected, complement our solutions, and significantly enhance our ability to deliver a market leading suite of integrated technologies capable of transforming automotive retailing,” [...]
Why Miliband’s rent control plan isn’t just some harmless gimmick May 1, 2014 TO DEAL with the problem of escalating rents, Ed Miliband plans to introduce what amounts to a variation of “second generation rent controls” (SGRCs). Under SGRCs, landlords are free to set rent levels at the outset of a tenancy, but are restricted in their ability to raise them during the term. In Miliband’s specific version, [...]
Why Miliband’s rent control plan isn’t just some harmless gimmick May 1, 2014 TO DEAL with the problem of escalating rents, Ed Miliband plans to introduce what amounts to a variation of “second generation rent controls” (SGRCs). Under SGRCs, landlords are free to set rent levels at the outset of a tenancy, but are restricted in their ability to raise them during the term. In Miliband’s specific version, [...]
Keeping watch April 16, 2014 Cartier UK’s new managing director tells Alex Doak how he made the unlikely transition from investment banking to top-end luxury goods IN THE year that Cartier is choosing to focus afresh on its men’s product, it makes plenty of sense for the London arm of Richemont Group’s flagship brand to recruit a regular wolf of [...]
How QE has harmed the economy April 7, 2014 LET ME begin with a confession. I admire former Fed chair Ben Bernanke for undertaking quantitative easing (QE) back in 2008. It was a brave decision, which involved taking a bold step across an unknown monetary horizon. It was also the right decision for the time, as it prevented the money supply from collapsing – [...]
How QE has harmed the economy April 7, 2014 LET ME begin with a confession. I admire former Fed chair Ben Bernanke for undertaking quantitative easing (QE) back in 2008. It was a brave decision, which involved taking a bold step across an unknown monetary horizon. It was also the right decision for the time, as it prevented the money supply from collapsing – [...]
We take the Aston Martin Vanquish to Dartmoor June 23, 2014 It’s the tail-end of dusk in Devon and silence is broken. Thundering down the twisting A382 from Exeter to Chagford, an ancient tin-mining town set on the upper reaches of southern England’s most rugged terrain, Dartmoor, the Aston Martin darts into a private road. Its V12 echoes through a dark tunnel of trees, skimming the [...]