Burger King set to rejoin the US stock market April 4, 2012 BURGER King will flip back to the public markets less than two years after it was snapped up by a US private equity house. The world’s third-largest hamburger chain, currently owned by 3G Capital Management, has agreed to sell a 29 per cent stake to London-listed investment firm Justice Holdings for $1.4bn (£882m). Shares in [...]
The recession is a distant memory in the White Isle September 15, 2013 Two million visit Ibiza every year. Many come for the clubs, but there’s more to it than beats IT IS a hot and sultry night on the east coast of Ibiza. Above my head a huge white crane has stretched out its long steel arm, carrying with it a circular frame resembling an oversized seventies [...]
Review: Ametsa with Arzak Instruction August 6, 2013 The Halkin Hotel, Belgravia, SW1X 7DJ Tel: 020 7333 1234 FOOD Four stars VALUE Three stars ATMOSPHERE One star Cost per person for tasting menu and matched wine: £145 Ametsa With Arzak Instruction; there’s a restaurant that’s just begging to be hated. It’s the first fine-dining export from the Arzak family (the current iteration being [...]
Dollar Thrifty accepts $2.3bn Hertz merger August 27, 2012 HERTZ Global Holdings yesterday announced it has struck a deal to buy Dollar Thrifty for $2.3bn (£1.45bn), ending a protracted battle to take control of the rival car rental firm. The merger will see Hertz pay $87.50 per share in cash for Dollar Thrifty, representing an eight per cent premium to its closing price of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 20, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Banks to get cheap money to lift UK lending The government’s new “funding for lending” programme, designed to boost credit for British business, will cut banks’ costs to as little as 1.2 per cent, according to people briefed on the scheme. The supply of such cheap money to the banks is supposed to [...]
Tesco horse meat mustn’t shake our faith in cheap food January 17, 2013 TAINTED food scandals are as old as the hills. In 1858, more than 200 were poisoned when a Bradford confectioner, known as Humbug Billy, accidentally mixed arsenic into his peppermint lozenges. More recently, mad cow disease led to the slaughter of 4.4m cattle. Poor quality has also never respected rank. Back in 1135, King Henry [...]
PROFILE: ALAN PARKER June 20, 2012 ALAN PARKER is certainly used to a complicated retail conundrum. The City grandee, who will take over as chairman of Kesa in September, has had his hands full of late rescuing baby products chain Mothercare, where he was parachuted in as chairman last August to help revive its flagging UK business. Mothercare’s former chief executive [...]
MEET THE NEW INVESTOR: JUSTICE April 4, 2012 AFTER helping to broker a £130bn bailout for several British banks in autumn 2009, Lord Myners’ deal for $8bn-valued Burger King might seem like small fry. It has the potential to be a whopper of a deal for the former City minister, however, as well as the stellar group of investment veterans who make up [...]
Miners and banks dent FTSE April 4, 2012 The FTSE 100 was dragged back by weaker mining stocks after minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s March meeting revealed that it is not planning any more monetary stimulus. Federal Reserve policymakers have backed away from the need to pump more money into the system as the US economy gradually improves, minutes of the central [...]
McDonald’s to dish up 2,500 British jobs January 24, 2012 FAST food king McDonald’s is to create 2,500 jobs in Britain during 2012 after benefitting from a recession that has pushed customers towards its cheap meals. The American firm announced an 11 per cent rise in net income for the last three months of 2011 to $1.38bn (£886m) on the back of a 10 per [...]