Playing the numbers game January 22, 2014 REAL Madrid top for a ninth consecutive year, Barcelona their chief rival: it may not look like much has changed in world football’s latest rich list, yet those facts belie a year of flux and fascinating trends. For two Middle East-funded upstarts, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, 2012-13 was a season of major gains in [...]
Just a third of small and medium sized businesses use advertising January 29, 2014 ONLY 30 per cent of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) advertise their services, despite every £1 spent on advertising being estimated to have eight times the impact on growth as £1 spent by larger firms. SMEs represent just 18 per cent of total advertising spending in the UK but account for 40 per cent [...]
City Moves for 24 February 2014 | Who’s switching jobs February 23, 2014 Northern Trust The asset management business has made two appointments. John Elder (right) joins as a senior investment adviser for multi-manager solutions. He has previously worked at Mellon Family Office Services and Ernst & Young. Jonathan Lidster joins as a senior wealth strategist. He was formerly chief operating officer at Global Partnership Family Offices. Barclays [...]
Monitise buys Turkish mobile money firm Pozitron for £60m February 3, 2014 MOBILE payment firm Monitise yesterday acquired Pozitron Yazilim, the Turkish mobile banking and payments business, for up to £60m in shares and cash. Pozitron, led by chief executive Fatih Isbecer, has around 130 employees, is profitable and was listed on Deloitte’s top ten fastest growing Turkish businesses last year. “Fatih and his team has positioned [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 28 January 2014 January 27, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Jobs data defies Hollande pledge French unemployment rose to a record level in December, forcing President Francois Hollande to concede failure in his main political promise of 2013 to “invert the curve” of rising joblessness by the end of the year. Official figures published yesterday showed the number of jobseekers rose 10,200 in [...]
North Sea oil drilling is drying up January 28, 2014 EXPLORATION and appraisal drilling in the UK North Sea fell by 28 per cent last year, a report out today showed, reigniting calls for more state support. Only 47 exploration and appraisal wells were drilled in 2013, compared with 65 in 2012, said the research by Deloitte. During the same period, the Norwegian Continental Shelf [...]
How SMEs can drive growth through new technologies May 14, 2014 Failing to adapt to the changing technological landscape will see you get left behind TECHNOLOGICAL shifts are the norm in business – no sooner had the early car manufacturers begun to turn a profit than they saw their market share collapse in the face of Henry Ford’s assembly line methods. But the pace of change [...]
The Road to Cheltenham February 13, 2014 FOR the next four weeks I will be picking out an ante-post selection for the Cheltenham Festival that I feel will go off shorter on the day. The first race I’m going to look at is the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle which this year kicks off Wednesday’s card. This race has a rich history. [...]
Consultants are called in to help at more firms February 17, 2014 MORE FIRMS are hiring management consultants to help them troubleshoot and hone their businesses, boosting revenues for the consultancies themselves by 4.8 per cent last year. Management consultants made revenues of £5.6bn in 2013 and the industry is expected to grow at an even faster pace this year, according to figures from Source Information Services, [...]
Vautour can get Mullins and Walsh off to a Supreme start March 10, 2014 THERE is no better sound in racing than the roar that kicks off the Cheltenham Festival as the tapes go up for the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. Last year’s event was a top-class renewal with today’s Arkle favourite Champagne Fever, and leading Champion Hurdle contenders My Tent Or Yours and Jezki fighting out the [...]