BECAUSE IT’S WORTH IT May 5, 2011 IF YOU ever hear anyone discussing whether expensive watches are really worth the money that’s charged for them, try this true story on them. While snorkeling off the Great Barrier Reef some years ago, a chap wearing a Rolex inadvertently knocked it against an outcrop. Torn from his wrist, the watch tumbled into the depths, [...]
BECAUSE IT’S WORTH IT May 5, 2011 IF YOU ever hear anyone discussing whether expensive watches are really worth the money that’s charged for them, try this true story on them. While snorkeling off the Great Barrier Reef some years ago, a chap wearing a Rolex inadvertently knocked it against an outcrop. Torn from his wrist, the watch tumbled into the depths, [...]
Evans Randall sells Allianz office March 2, 2011 Investment bank Evans Randall has sold 60 Gracechurch Street, home of insurance firm Allianz, to German investor KGAL after owning it for just over three years. The companies have not disclosed the sale price, but it is thought to be around £116m. Allianz, which moved into the building in 2009 when Commerzbank moved its investment [...]
SOTHEBY’S PAINTS A ROSY PICTURE February 28, 2011 Art-lovers and investors flocked to Sotheby’s in the last three months of the year, helping the New York-listed auction house post a 31 per cent rise in net income to $96.2m (£59.1m) on the back of a 46 per cent rise in revenue to $318m. The world’s largest listed auctioneer sold Picasso’s La Lecture (pictured) [...]
Strong dividends entice investors back into equities March 27, 2011 RETAIL investors are buying into the stock market at pre-financial crisis levels, new research from a share registration consultancy today showed. Private shareholders ploughed a net £473m into equities in the quarter ending in February to take their holdings to £233bn, the highest level since November 2007, the Capita Registrars Private Investor Watch report said. [...]
Mayfair gets itself a huge new private club April 13, 2011 Going Out NUMBER 141 Park Lane has just become the home of new members’ nightclub One For One, the biggest club launch in Mayfair for some time. Celebrations were certainly on the cards when it sold a nebuchadnezzer of Armand de Brignac (Ace of Spades) champagne on its second night, the most expensive recorded in [...]
HOUSING SUPPORT March 23, 2011 CHANGES TO STAMP DUTY LAND TAX ON BULK PURCHASES If the buyer chooses then the rate of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) on properties can be determined by the mean value of the homes bought, rather than the aggregate value that is currently the case. This will be subject to a minimum rate of one [...]
FACING UP TO THE FEAR OF FAILURE May 25, 2011 AUTHOR ASK what was holding me back and I can tell you immediately: fear. Fear of failure, in fact. This self-fulfilling mental condition is a disaster for too many careers. I wrote What’s Stopping You? out of frustration with this and the self-help universe. I saw a disconnect between what the psychologists stated were our [...]
Cleaning up: how selling soap can make millions April 10, 2011 THE 90s recession didn’t really affect me. Well, apart from the fact I couldn’t find a job – that’s why I created one,” says Lara Morgan casually. She describes that job simply as “selling soap.” But more accurately, it was a multi-national hotel toiletry supplier called Pacific Direct that grew into a business that supplied [...]
UK property market stagnant February 23, 2011 The UK property market is still stalled, according to figures from the British Bankers’ Association. The BBA said mortgages approved by its members in January for home buyers were 29 per cent lower than a year ago. They approved just 28,932 loans for house purchase, although this was slightly higher than in December. Meanwhile property [...]