Investors take $1.6bn stake in F1 as IPO looms May 22, 2012 PRIVATE equity house CVC Capital has moved closer to its hotly anticipated flotation of Formula One by selling a $1.6bn (£1.01bn) stake to three major investors. CVC, which owned 63.4 per cent of F1, has sold 21 per cent of the business, it said yesterday. Asset managers BlackRock and Waddell & Reed alongside Norges Bank [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 15, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES EU to push for binding investor pay votes Shareholders in Europe’s listed companies will be given a binding vote on pay while those who invest in banks will gain powers to set a cap on bonus levels, under plans being drawn up by senior EU officials. The initiative from Michel Barnier, the EU’s [...]
London’s property: As unsafe as houses April 15, 2012 INSANITY, Albert Einstein famously said, is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The crash might have petrified property investors at the bottom and middle of the market, but in London’s swankier postcodes prices are back on the up. The question is whether these represent sound long-term investments or another [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 13, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Canary Wharf claims high ground on City Canary Wharf will finally come of age over the next two months when the UK’s “new” financial centre overtakes the traditional City of London as the biggest employer of bankers in Europe. According to Financial Times research, the transfer of 8,000 jobs by US bank JPMorgan [...]
KKR enters the race for Rio and BHP diamonds April 15, 2012 US BUYOUT giant KKR has emerged as one of the frontrunners to snap up the diamond businesses put up for sale by mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. The listed private equity house wants to create the world’s third-largest diamond miner to challenge De Beers and Alrosa. It is believed to be competing with [...]
House prices rise as supply fails to keep up with solid demand April 1, 2012 HOUSE prices rose sharply in March thanks to a lack of supply and the expiry of the stamp duty holiday, but are set to stagnate over the rest of the year, figures from Hometrack suggested today. Prices rose 0.2 per cent in the month, the survey of 1,500 agents and surveyors showed, after 20 months [...]
Loopholes on home sale fee slammed shut March 21, 2012 AN AGGRESSIVE crackdown against stamp duty avoidance on high-end properties will begin today, as the government slaps a punitive tax on the sales of expensive homes that wealthy people put into companies’ names. Sales of properties worth £2m or more that are “enveloped” in a bid to avoid the tax, will now be hit with [...]
All the West End wonders July 5, 2012 CHARIOTS OF FIRE Celebrate one of this country’s greatest ever sporting achievements this summer as Chariots of Fire, a new play, lights up the West End at the Gielgud Theatre. Adapted from the Oscar-winning movie, and featuring the original Vangelis score, this is a moving tale of rivalry, and determination in the face of prejudice [...]
House prices decline again in September October 6, 2011 VOLATILITY continued in the housing market, with September’s price falls reversing gains seen in June and July, the Halifax index revealed yesterday. Prices are down 0.5 per cent compared with August and 2.3 per cent over the last 12 months, the seasonally adjusted figures show. The rate of decline has slowed from its peak of [...]
BACON NUDE FETCHES £21M AT AUCTION February 15, 2012 A 1963 painting by Francis Bacon has been sold for £21.3m, making it the second most valuable piece of contemporary art ever sold at Christie’s auction house. The Portrait of Henrietta Moraes – described as “sexually charged” by Christie’s Francis Outred – had been in a private collection for 30 years, and had not been [...]