Carphone and Dixons dial up £3.8bn merger May 15, 2014 DIXONS Retail and Carphone Warehouse shares slid into the red yesterday after the high street giants’ plans for a £3.8bn merger was given a mixed reception. The new group, which will be named Dixons Carphone, aims to exploit the ever-growing presence of smartphones in people’s lives and the so-called internet of things – where household [...]
Panama: Latin America’s new number one holiday destination July 11, 2014 In Britain, Panama is famous for two things: the canal and canoe man. Back in 2002, John Darwin faked his own death and fled to Panama City with his wife, who, following his “canoeing accident”, claimed £1m in insurance and pension pay outs. Had a newspaper not got hold of a picture of him looking [...]
City Matters: Tangible steps forward in the UK-China relationship will deliver real benefits October 20, 2013 WITH both George Osborne and Boris Johnson flying the flag for British business in China last week, it is worth taking stock of this increasingly important UK-Sino relationship. As the government rightly recognises, the UK and London need to be plugged into fast-growing global markets like China in order to succeed in the global race. [...]
Dagger in the Kremlin’s heart: Europe’s sanctions have revived a comatose West July 30, 2014 “We live between the act of awakening and the act of surrender.” John O’Donohue, Irish poet MY GOD, they’ve finally done something. In the end, it wasn’t the horrific shooting down of MH17 – highly likely by Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine – that goaded a seemingly inert Europe into decisive action. Even after this [...]
Banks battle to share bumper $240m deal fee April 28, 2014 CITY investment banks are squaring up for a share of the tie-up of AstraZeneca and Pfizer, in what could be the second biggest payday for advisers since the financial crisis. The cream of Square Mile and Wall Street will tussle in the coming weeks, with the seven banks working on the potential deal sharing $200m [...]
City Matters: Celebrate the soft power underpinning London’s economic fundamentals October 27, 2013 OVER the past twelve months, we have seen the UK economy, London and the City move towards a healthier position. The UK economy expanded by 0.8 per cent in the third quarter, the IMF has significantly raised its growth forecast for 2013 as a whole, London businesses feel more optimistic than at any time since [...]
City mourns bow-tied branding pioneer Olins April 15, 2014 TRIBUTES have been flooding in following the news yesterday of branding legend Wally Olins’ passing on Monday. The man who not only rebranded British Telecoms as BT, but also made wearing black rimmed glasses and bow ties cool long before east London’s hipsters got hold of them, has died of a short illness, aged 83. [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 24 June 2014 June 23, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Labour to take on outsourcing groups Labour will mount an assault on big outsourcing companies if it wins the election, reducing their role in delivering the government’s back-to-work programme and exploring a plan to force them to pay all workers above the minimum wage in exchange for Whitehall contracts. The proposals are the [...]
City Moves for 01 May 2014 | Who’s switching jobs April 30, 2014 MHA Macintyre Hudson The accountancy firm has announced the appointment of Matt Coward as a tax partner in its London City office. Coward is a chartered tax adviser and member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. He joins from Price Bailey, where he was a private client tax partner. DAC Beachcroft The law [...]
FinnCap and Numis cheer profit boost as equity activity rises May 7, 2014 CITY brokers Numis and FinnCap yesterday said London’s buoyant equity markets helped drive stellar profit increases at both companies, underscoring a turnaround in fortunes for the capital’s broking community. Numis, which worked on floats including AO World, McColl’s and Arrow Global this year, said revenues rose 59 per cent to £51.5m and statutory pre-tax profits [...]