Ocado hit by boss share sale February 21, 2011 OCADO shares took a tumble yesterday after chief executive Tim Steiner sold £5m worth of Ocado stock. Steiner’s move – plus the announcement that Waitrose was planning to revamp its own online delivery service – saw the stock close down 7.75 per cent at 239p. Waitrose, which has a ten-year contract with Ocado to supply the [...]
Murphy hoping to make it Big at the Festival again March 13, 2011 Colm Murphy trains 50 horses in Ballinadrummin, Killena, Gorey – an address more Harry Potter than Dick Francis, but apparently it’s in the heart of County Wexford. We didn’t meet face-to-face and only spoke on the phone – he was too busy finalising his Festival plans and I couldn’t find platform nine and three quarters. [...]
Mitchells & Butlers chairman John Lovering to resign January 23, 2011 JOHN Lovering is set to step down as chairman of the pubs group Mitchells & Butlers this week, a year after taking over following an investor-led board battle. Lovering, the former chairman of retailer Debenhams, has told the board he wants to leave as soon as a successor is found, because he feels he has [...]
M&B to sell bowling firm in £39m deal August 9, 2010 PUBS and restaurants group Mitchells & Butlers is offloading its Hollywood Bowl ten-pin bowling business to rival AMF Bowling for £39m. AMF will add Hollywood Bowl’s 24 sites to its existing 33 UK bowling centres. M&B is selling non-core businesses to focus on its pub operations, which include Harvester, Toby Carvery, Vintage Inns and O’Neill’s. [...]
What crisis? Optimism reigns despite turmoil March 27, 2011 Crisis, what crisis ? The FTSE 100 starts trading this week at 5,900 after rising over three per cent last week. It was up six of the past seven trading days. We’re now above the levels before the Japanese earthquake, we still have rising Middle East tensions, an unresolved European debt crisis, and an inflation [...]
Virgin posts strongest full-year results February 17, 2011 Virgin Media added a solid number of new customers in the fourth quarter and extracted record customer spend, helping it to post its best ever full-year financial results. Virgin Media, which competes with BT and BSkyB to provide broadband, telephony and pay-TV, said it added 17,100 net new subscribers in the last three months of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 21, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES HEDGE FUNDS TOLD TO ACCEPT HIGH TAXES AS THE PRICE OF LONDON LIFE Hedge funds should accept higher taxes as the cost of doing business in London and stop threatening to move elsewhere, according to one of the world’s best-known copper traders. Michael Farmer, a Conservative party donor who runs the near-$1bn Red [...]
Berkshire Hathaway to buy remaining Wesco stake February 7, 2011 Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc will buy the 19.9 per cent it does not own of Wesco Financial, in a deal worth about $547.6m (£340m), the companies said. Buffett first submitted a takeover bid for Wesco, run by Berkshire vice chairman Charlie Munger, last September. Berkshire acquired its 80.1 per cent stake in Wesco more [...]
Liz Murdoch to join News Corp board after TV deal February 21, 2011 Rupert Murdoch has paved the way for his daughter Elisabeth to join News Corp as a senior executive on Monday by buying her television production company Shine in a £415m deal. Liz Murdoch founded UK-based Shine, which makes shows such as Masterchef and Merlin, in 2001. Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp owns broadcaster Fox and [...]
Price hike for white goods as profits lag February 2, 2011 TOP home appliances makers Whirlpool and Electrolux are raising prices to pass soaring raw materials costs onto customers and will rely on emerging markets to drive growth. The move comes as both companies missed quarterly profit estimates and continue to grapple with tepid demand in key developed markets like the US and Europe. The news [...]