No recessions for 80 years: The fanciful world of High Speed Rail 2’s business case January 9, 2012 AFTER the well-flagged decision this afternoon to press ahead with the first stage of the High Speed 2 rail project (HS2), the City and business will be pressed to “contribute” to the strong business case. An aspect that MPs are singularly ill-equipped to consider, but that the City will focus on, is the way the [...]
The pensions industry must act to avert the looming UK capital crisis July 1, 2012 OVER the next few decades, the UK’s public finances face being crushed by the costs of preserving our pensioner population. In parallel, our domestic supplies of capital will likely be depleted, exacerbated by a shrinking savings pool. Japan’s once legendarily high savings rate is expected to turn negative this year, as pensioners spend their savings. [...]
The journey of an idea from a classroom to the boardroom June 20, 2012 SUSAN Cooper is founder of Accutrainee, a start-up that aims to reduce costs and increase flexibility for law firms by outsourcing their trainee solicitor needs. The company employs the trainees and seconds them out when required. Cooper is a former lawyer – she spent several years working at Hogan Lovells and then in the construction [...]
BEST of the BROKERS May 8, 2012 BALFOUR BEATTY Investec rates the construction firm “sell” but has raised its target price from 185p to 210p. While trading remains weak, and the broker expects earnings “significantly below” last year’s results, Investec has revised its cash and pension deficit forecasts, giving the shares a higher fair value. AIR FRANCE-KLM UBS rates the airline “neutral” [...]
WALL ST THE WEEK AHEAD July 1, 2012 US stocks finished the first half of the year with a bang as investors welcomed news that the Eurozone is a step closer to solving its 30-month-long debt crisis. Now for the question: Is this rally strong enough to last for more than a day? The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posted their best daily [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 16, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Google unveils search results rejig Google is preparing the biggest overhaul of its search results in five years, in a change likely to draw more fire from rivals amid intensifying antitrust investigations into the company. The new service will present users with detailed information about more than 500m “real world” items rather than [...]
BEST of the BROKERS April 19, 2012 CARILLION Seymour Pierce rates the construction to services company as a “buy” with a target price of 440p after a sales presentation from the company’s executive where they remained upbeat about prospects for 2012 and beyond. The broker says the pipeline of opportunity remains strong and revenue visibility for this year is high at around [...]
RAPID RESPONSES May 14, 2012 Brown belt building [Re: Restrictions choke London, Friday] Tim Leunig has a balanced view of development. He recognises the role of open space, green belts and “fingers”, and transport links. But I disagree with him on the creation of new suburbs. He himself says why: Los Angeles. Do we really want urban sprawl stretching from [...]
Over to you, Merkel June 6, 2012 Europe’s political leaders must act now to restore confidence and stop their ravaged economies from collapsing any further, European Central Bank (ECB) boss Mario Draghi insisted yesterday as he again refused to cut interest rates. Draghi stressed the Eurozone’s problems could not be solved by monetary policy, and that politicians must stop hesitating and take [...]
Trading hurdles at this summer’s Games July 16, 2012 LOOKING ahead to the start of the Olympic Games, there is no end of attempts to make tie-ins – official or not – with the festival of sport. But who are going to be the real winners and losers in business this summer? Much was made of the effects of the Jubilee celebrations on high [...]