London’s west end tops list of pricey offices December 18, 2013 LONDON’S west end has unseated Hong Kong Central as the world’s most expensive office market, regaining the top spot it lost three years ago. The cost of renting an office in the west end has shot up by 14.3 per cent in the past year to $259.36 per square feet, driven by a squeeze in [...]
Bring your business back home, PM urges at Davos January 23, 2014 THE PRIME Minister will today promise a pro-business regulatory environment and cheap sources of energy, in a bid to tempt British companies to bring their operations backto the UK. In a speech in Davos this morning, David Cameron will make the case for re-shoring the nation by bringing manufacturing, call centres and head offices back [...]
Fulham facing tap-up probe over Morrison January 15, 2014 FULHAM could face a fine after the Premier League confirmed last night it was investigating a complaint from West Ham over what they believe equates to the tapping up of Ravel Morrison by their relegation rivals. Cottagers boss Rene Meulensteen, who worked with the midfielder at Manchester United, said on Tuesday that a bid for Morrison [...]
Ukraine’s crisis sits on a knife edge as protest morphs into revolution February 20, 2014 THERE is almost nothing more difficult for a political risk analyst than assessing the dynamics of a revolution, a situation in which long-held conventional wisdom can be upended in a matter of minutes. For only one question matters in Kiev today: what is the likely end game for Ukraine, and how do we get there? [...]
The lights go out on HMV’s flagship Oxford Street store January 12, 2014 HMV’S flagship store at 150 Oxford Street closed its doors for the last time yesterday, almost 30 years after it was first opened. The world’s biggest music store, which opened in 1986, will be converted into a Sports Direct after the sportswear giant snapped up the lease to the 60,000 square foot shop. The troubled [...]
Time to worry: The Iranian nuclear crisis still threatens global stability February 16, 2014 ONE OF the areas of overlap between the business and political worlds concerns negotiation; any businessman or government-type worth their salt surely loves the chance to play at being that master actor-negotiator Peter O’Toole, if only for a limited audience. Some of my fondest memories of my decade in Washington involve behaving outrageously – asking [...]
Learn to cook with a legend in the world of haute-cuisine May 18, 2014 French chef Michel Guérard has opened his very own school. Laura Ivill investigates. SUNDAY lunch in south west France: carpaccio of langoustines, followed by roasted milk-fed lamb and peach melba. It is as delicious as you would expect from the hands of venerated French chef Michel Guérard. But the clincher: three courses under 630 calories. [...]
Ebola outbreak in west Africa: Spike in Sierra Leone infections suggests epidemic is far from being over November 11, 2014 A sharp rise in new Ebola cases in Sierra Leone indicates the epidemic has a long way to go before it calms down. On Sunday, 111 new cases were recorded in the country, which marked a significant increase from the 45 new cases reported the day before. In fact, it was the biggest daily [...]
Great Portland Estates offloads 20 St James’s Street for £54.5m December 9, 2013 GREAT Portland Estates has sold a prime West End site between Piccadilly and St James’s Park to a German pension fund managed by US property investor Pramerica for £54.5m. Chief executive Toby Courtauld said yesterday that the group had originally planned to refurbish the building in 2015 to exploit the lack of new space in [...]
Cairn Energy unveils nine-well expansion programme for 2014 January 21, 2014 CASH-RICH oil explorer Cairn Energy yesterday said it plans to drill nine new wells this year, while its programme to buy back up to $300m (£182.2m) in shares is still ongoing. “Cairn plans to drill nine wells in its 2014 exploration programme across an attractive mix of frontier and mature basins,” said chief executive Simon [...]