Deal-makers are hoping that UK M&A returns to form January 6, 2014 AS WE head into the New Year the City will be cautiously optimistic about likely activity in the corporate finance markets in 2014. Last year saw a major revival in the new issues or initial public offering (IPO) market, which had been virtually dead in 2012. UK IPO revenue totals were 274 per cent up [...]
Samsung’s #Selfie4England backfires June 19, 2014 There is a long, rich and humorous history of hashtags backfiring on corporates but it doesn’t seem to stop them – step forward Samsung, who has been running the #Selfie4England since England’s first game last week. Let’s just say it’s been going wrong almost as much as right. A quick scan of the [...]
Behind a silver screen: Lionsgate’s Zygi Kamasa talks pensioners, big tellies and Colin Firth October 5, 2014 The movie business is known for taking no prisoners. And for those that do try their hand at it, success is often fleeting. But Zygi Kamasa, the UK chief executive of entertainment company Lionsgate, has proved that, by playing your cards right, passion can lead to success. Over the past two decades, he’s been involved [...]
Chelsea Harbour: more than a marina July 24, 2014 Most people move out to the suburbs in search of more space and a cosy, village-like community. But Chelsea Harbour, a small marina on the north bank of the Thames, could be London’s inner city equivalent for wealthy residents looking for peace and quiet, but with all the transport benefits of living in Zone Two. [...]
Jade Jagger talks motherhood, design and building a matriarchal paradise in Ibiza September 23, 2014 Jade Jagger is tired. She yawns through much of our interview as she potters around her 16th century villa. Perhaps she just feels relaxed in her sleepy village in Ibiza, where she spends the summer with her family. Or maybe it’s only to be expected from this daughter of rock royalty, now an international [...]
Why did the dinosaurs go extinct? Bad timing, scientists say July 28, 2014 It wasn't just the impact of an asteroid thundering down to Earth that wiped dinosaurs off the face of the planet: their extinction was the result of a longer chain of events, according to new research. There are several theories about how the prehistoric creatures met their abrupt end 66 million years ago, [...]
Sir Richard Branson mouths off over being forced to wear a tie July 3, 2014 You’d imagine being a billionaire would mean never having to do something you really don’t want to do. If you don’t want to eat your greens, consider them gone. If you really dislike pairing socks, there’s someone else can do that for you. But it seems the UK’s favourite billionaire Sir Richard Branson [...]
Boris Bentos to hit the South Bank at new Japanese restaurant June 11, 2014 London is full of themed restaurants but County Hall might have just become the site of the weirdest one –Izakaya Boris – a casual Japanese eatery for which BoJo is the mascot. There’s a plastic cartoon-like icon of Boris Johnson outside the restaurant and one inside and again on the menu. The question on everybody’s [...]
Meet elBulli’s Ferran Adrià: We interview the world’s greatest chef July 29, 2014 Once upon a time, the language of culinary pretension was French. If a chef wanted to bump up the prices on his menu, all he had to do was add a dash of “jus”, a splash of “vin”, perhaps a little “petit”. French words forged a connection between whatever slop the chef was serving up [...]
How Blu’s sheriff Jacob Fuller plans to conquer the ecigarette wild west August 10, 2014 Jacob Fuller tells Oliver Smith why eCigs have big tobacco smitten. The electronic cigarette market is booming. In just seven years since they first arrived in the UK, ecigarettes have grown into an industry with sales of £193m last year and £340m sales forecast for 2015. But you would be mistaken in thinking [...]