UK growth slows for Admiral as competitors crowd car market August 30, 2012 CAR insurer Admiral posted a seven per cent rise in half-year profits to £171.8m yesterday, but analysts raised concerns that the headline growth disguised a stall in sales momentum, sending its shares lower. Admiral’s turnover rose six per cent to £1.17bn, but it admitted the pace of UK customer and price growth slowed due to [...]
Boxing with Bellows February 27, 2013 LIFE WAS hard in the early twentieth century. War and industrialisation brought about a revolution in art. Cubism, futurism and constructivism ushered in a blockish future of hard edges and fragmented forms. American realist painter, George Bellows (1882–1925) had a different reaction to the onset of modernity. While European masters turned to abstraction, Bellows fixed [...]
Best of the brokers January 21, 2013 ADMIRAL GROUP Goldman Sachs yesterday upgraded Cardiff-based insurer Admiral from “neutral” to “buy”, sending the company’s share price up five per cent. The banking giant said the stock had underperformed over the last six months due to “softening premium rates and regulatory intervention” but it now presents an investment opportunity, as there is “potential for [...]
Network Rail set to be fined as planning mistakes cause delays February 21, 2013 NETWORK Rail is facing a multi-million pound fine for causing unacceptable delays over the winter, the industry regulator warned yesterday. Overrunning engineering work over Christmas and “basic operational planning mistakes” were behind the slip in punctuality on English and Welsh railways, said the Office of Rail Regulation. Around 88.3 per cent of long-distance trains arrived [...]
Title-winning Juve boss Conte linked with Chelsea hot seat February 5, 2013 JUVENTUS manager Antonio Conte has emerged as the latest candidate to take over at Chelsea in the summer, according to reports in Italy. The 43-year-old, who masterminded the Turin side’s unbeaten 2011-12 title-winning campaign, is on a shortlist with former Blues boss Jose Mourinho, Swansea’s Michael Laudrup and Stamford Bridge hero Gianfranco Zola, the Gazzetta [...]
Letters to the editor February 6, 2013 Labour’s record [Re: Why Labour is the natural party of small business and entrepreneurs, Wednesday] While Chuka Umunna’s vision for small business is admirable, his ideas smack of the same old political rhetoric. Half-baked measures and ill thought-out plans are hardly sufficient to mend the problems facing British business. A temporary VAT cut will not [...]
UK leads pack in New Year dealmaking January 20, 2013 THE UK private equity industry has helped lead a flurry of European dealmaking activity in the first two weeks of the year, with close to 85 per cent of deals inked involving UK outfits, data shows. Of the £1.73bn worth of top deals inked across Europe between 2 January and 16 January, £1.46bn have involved [...]
Allardyce £2m bid for Olsson turned down January 7, 2013 WEST HAM have had a £2m bid for Blackburn full-back Martin Olsson rejected, as boss Sam Allardyce looks to bolster his squad. The Sweden international has impressed for Blackburn in the Championship this season, and Hammers boss Allardyce is known to be an admirer, having worked with him during his time at Ewood Park. A [...]
Europe needs to be more relaxed about entrepreneurs getting filthy rich February 12, 2013 PETER Mandelson famously said that he was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”. As with many aspects of New Labour, he was working firmly in the Leninist intellectual tradition. Some 20 years earlier, the then leader of the Chinese Communist Party Deng Xiaoping stated that “to get rich is glorious”. The Chinese have certainly [...]
FTSE pauses for breath beneath the 6,300 mark February 11, 2013 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 was lifted yesterday by strength in energy stocks and food retailers, but the index was still struggling to break through the four-and-a-half year highs hit at the start of February. London’s blue chip index gained 13.13 points, or 0.2 per cent at 6,277.06, holding within the 70-point range of the last five [...]