Why business is key to uniting East and West October 28, 2013 TODAY the ninth World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) meets for the first time outside a Muslim country. And it’s happening here in London, the UK’s cosmopolitan and inclusive capital. There has never been a more important time for Western and Islamic countries to work together. We’ve discovered that, when people get together for business, they [...]
Inside Track: The new issues market hits the first signs of trouble November 14, 2013 WHAT a difference a week makes. Last week I reported on a piece of research from Deloitte, the business advisory firm, on the storming performance of 10 main market flotations in 2013, including Royal Mail obviously, showing how their overall share price performance had outperformed the wider market seven times. This week the talk has [...]
Inside Track: More than one elephant in the Royal Mail sorting room September 25, 2013 IT’S NOT hard to identify the biggest of the elephantine threats to Royal Mail’s imminent stock market listing, which heralds the most contentious privatisation since the 1980s. With unions poised to ballot members over the prospect of industrial action within weeks, the prospect of a multi-day walkout at the precise time that the company’s shares [...]
Royal Mail float this morning September 11, 2013 ROYAL Mail will this morning take the first formal step towards ending its 497 year stint as an arm of the British state and confirm that it intends to float on the London Stock Exchange. But unions are promising strike action to disrupt the flotation, which could see the company be valued at £3bn when [...]
London Report: Lloyds and Centrica pull down FTSE but Shell prevents rout July 31, 2014 BRITAIN’S top equity index yesterday fell as Lloyds Bank pulled down financial stocks, while concerns about the impact on Europe from tensions between Russia and Ukraine also made traders wary. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed down by 0.6 per cent, or 43.33 points, at 6,730.11 points. Shares in Lloyds, which had risen for the [...]
Inside Track: It’s about time the City’s watchdog got its act together December 4, 2013 WERE British banks engaged in a corrupt pact to bankrupt struggling business customers? The evidence from dossiers compiled by the businessmen Lawrence Tomlinson and Neil Mitchell is superficially shocking, although as yet inconclusive. Anecdotal evidence that Royal Bank of Scotland’s global restructuring group has nudged clients into administration when alternative outcomes were achievable have circulated [...]
Nine banks hit with fresh Libor rigging lawsuit October 31, 2013 FANNIE Mae sued nine of the world’s largest banks yesterday, accusing them of colluding to manipulate interest rates and seeking more than $800m (£499m) in damages. In a complaint filed in the US District Court in Manhattan, the government-controlled mortgage company accused the banks of conspiring for years to suppress Libor, or the London Interbank [...]
Twitter’s float reminds us why we must privatise the Royal Mail September 12, 2013 COUNT on Twitter, that most modern of communication companies, to steal the thunder of the Royal Mail, an organisation founded by Henry VIII and now aiming to reinvent itself as a privatised, modern parcel delivery firm. For most of yesterday, the Royal Mail was the big story: the coalition confirmed the firm would be sold [...]
Land Securities sells RBS offices on the South Bank for £315m October 10, 2013 LAND SECURITIES has sold Royal Bank of Scotland’s flagship offices on the South Bank to M&G Real Estate in a £315m deal. The FTSE 100 landlord said yesterday it has exchanged contracts to sell Bankside 2&3, which are let to the bank until 2027. The 380,000 square feet offices, which sit next to the Tate [...]
Housebuilding lags as UK population swells November 21, 2013 THE UK’S population is growing at one of the fastest rates in Europe, yet housebuilding remains too slow to keep up with expanding demand. Estate agents Haart will reveal this morning that first time buyer registrations have surged upward over the past year, rising 74.3 per cent between October 2012 and last month. In the [...]