The writing was always on the wall for Setanta June 11, 2009 YOU have to admire the sheer tenacity of Setanta’s founding pair, Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan. A lesser team would have let the floundering business die peacefully by now; these two are determined to keep it on life support until the bitter end. Yesterday, I spoke to several analysts to canvass opinion on the broadcaster’s [...]
WILL THRIFT SLOW DOWN RECOVERY? May 19, 2009 SINCE March, global equity markets and risk currencies like the euro, pound and Australian dollar have rallied on the assumption that global demand will begin to recover by the second half of 2009. Markets have seen evidence of recovery among producers as various purchasing managers’ surveys from industrialised nations have beaten expectations. Demand has undeniably [...]
WILL THRIFT SLOW DOWN RECOVERY? May 19, 2009 SINCE March, global equity markets and risk currencies like the euro, pound and Australian dollar have rallied on the assumption that global demand will begin to recover by the second half of 2009. Markets have seen evidence of recovery among producers as various purchasing managers’ surveys from industrialised nations have beaten expectations. Demand has undeniably [...]
REVEALED: THE LOVELIEST CITY LADIES June 29, 2009 1. SARAH DAVISONRBS SEMPRA METALSIt’s finally official – the gorgeous Miss Davison, who has graced the pages of City A.M. several times since her initial appearance on the front cover last year, is the loveliest lady the business world has to offer. Sarah has worked as a metals trader for RBS Sempra Metals for around [...]
Mix banging techno with minke whales in spectacular, friendly Iceland August 9, 2009 THE high cost of a pint of beer used to mean that Iceland was out of bounds for all but the most well-heeled traveller. But the financial catastrophe the country has suffered in the wake of the credit crunch, while devastating for its population, has made it far more accessible, and tourism is expected to [...]
CELEBRITY CIRCUIT BECKONS FOR THE BEEB’S RESIDENT HEARTTHROB May 17, 2009 THAT Robert Peston just keeps popping up on the celebrity circuit. The BBC business editor has enjoyed something of a meteoric rise to fame since his scoop about the crisis at Northern Rock back in 2007 – so much so that he even managed to scoop eighth place in a recent Britain’s Sexiest Brains poll, [...]
Strong acting fails to bring revised Ibsen classic to life May 21, 2009 TheatreA DOLL’S HOUSEDonmar WarehouseIbsen’s story of a woman who walks away from her empty marriage was too much for upright Victorian audiences at its first London staging in 1889. With such compelling source-material, it’s a shame Zinnie Harris’s reworked version – which relocates things from 1880s Norway to London in 1909 – is curiously bloodless, [...]
When weather is a matter of life and death June 10, 2009 TURBULENCEBy Giles FodenFABER & FABER, £16.99 GILES FODEN’S The Last King of Scotland was a masterful book and became a masterful film because of its compelling combination of historical fact, fiction and painstakingly realised detail in an unusual context. It is reason enough for Turbulence, his latest piece of historical fiction, to be read with [...]
From Russia with laughs June 11, 2009 TheatreTHE CHERRY ORCHARDThe Old VicTHIS new production by Sam Mendes is one half of a double bill under the title of The Bridge Project, conceived by Mendes and Old Vic artistic director Kevin Spacey to bring together an Anglo-American company touring two productions at once. The other show is Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale. It might [...]
Record share dividend for Admiral July 31, 2008 Admiral, the insurance firm, yesterday revealed pre-tax profits of £100.3m for the first half of 2008, a 16 per cent rise from the same time last year. The group announced a record dividend of 26p per share, a 26 per cent increase. In addition, over £3m in shares will be distributed to staff who have [...]