Game teeters on the brink of insolvency March 12, 2012 GAME shares plunged as much as 78 per cent yesterday to just three quarters of a penny after it was unable to assure investors that the value of its shares could be redeemed or grown. Just weeks after renegotiating its banking covenants, Game said it was “uncertain” whether any of the solutions being discussed with [...]
Legal firms hit by fresh downturn April 30, 2012 LONDON’S increasingly embattled legal sector suffered a further blow yesterday, as magic circle stalwart Slaughter and May froze associate salaries and Herbert Smith announced 51 redundancies in its City office. Only second-year associates at Slaughters will see their pay packets rise, though by less than one per cent, while salary bands for the firm’s other [...]
London nets football cash capital title February 8, 2012 MANCHESTER clubs might currently be bullying their southern rivals in the Premier League, but London has been pronounced the undisputed football finance capital of the world. London boasts three teams – Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham – among Europe’s richest 11 clubs, with two more – West Ham and Fulham – inside the top 40, according [...]
UK economic gloom hitting oil explorers January 19, 2012 OIL and gas firms drilled 34 per cent fewer wells in the UK-controlled parts of the Continental Shelf last year as the grim state of the economy took its toll, according to a report by Deloitte. Operators drilled just 49 wells in UK waters compared with 74 wells in 2010, on a par with activity [...]
Shareholder activism is vital for a properly functioning City April 26, 2012 OWNERS of publicly listed companies need to behave as proprietors. They shouldn’t micromanage firms in which they invest – that is their executives’ jobs – but they should ratify some key decisions, including the pay of their top staff. In his 1970 polemic Exit, Voice and Loyalty, Albert O Hirschman explained that members of any [...]
George Osborne delivers a decent deal for aspirant and established businesses March 25, 2012 THE men and women busy building Britain’s future economic wealth broadly welcomed last week’s Budget. Although lacking a radical strategy for growth, the coalition has gone some way in oiling the wheels of entrepreneurship. Richard Marsh explains how reforms to the Enterprise Investment Scheme has allowed the creation of the first angel co-investment fund in [...]
680 jobs cut as Barratts finds buyers January 15, 2012 BARRATTS PRICELESS, the collapsed shoe chain, is set to make another 680 people redundant after its founder and chief executive Michael Ziff agreed to rescue the majority of its stores. Administrators Deloitte said the existing management team had bought 89 Barratts and Priceless stores for an undisclosed sum, safeguarding 1,184 jobs. However, 39 shops and [...]
680 jobs cut as Barratts finds buyers January 15, 2012 BARRATTS PRICELESS, the collapsed shoe chain, is set to make another 680 people redundant after its founder and chief executive Michael Ziff agreed to rescue the majority of its stores. Administrators Deloitte said the existing management team had bought 89 Barratts and Priceless stores for an undisclosed sum, safeguarding 1,184 jobs. However, 39 shops and [...]
Before introducing costly new schemes government should first do less harm March 18, 2012 LET’S face it. In asking for government favours entrepreneurs are a vested interest like all the rest. Because they aren’t collectivised in the same way as more experienced lobbyists, they don’t get the same hearing as big business. Yet what they lack in voice they make up for in value for money. Politicians are more [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 19, 2012 Signia Wealth Chris Godding has been appointed as co-chief investment officer and managing director, focusing on institutional and charity clients. Godding moves to Signia Wealth after nine years at Morgan Stanley private wealth management international, where he was chief investment officer and a member of the Smith Barney investment committee. Prior to this, he managed [...]