The time is ripe to take the plunge into the Cotswolds September 24, 2009 FOLLOWING a tough year when the market has been in the doldrums, the Cotswolds – the perennial favourite area for City workers’ second homes – are back in the swing of things. The problem for those who yearn to own a property in those picturesque old wool villages is that they just don’t often come [...]
BARGAIN BANKER October 28, 2009 THE government confirmed that it had hired one of the City’s top deal-makers yesterday – on an income believed to be no more than a tenth of what he earned at UBS. Robin Budenberg joined UK Financial Investments (UKFI) for a bonus-free, pension-free bargain salary of just £155,000. Friends said the banker, who they described [...]
BARGAIN BANKER October 28, 2009 THE government confirmed that it had hired one of the City’s top deal-makers yesterday – on an income believed to be no more than a tenth of what he earned at UBS. Robin Budenberg joined UK Financial Investments (UKFI) for a bonus-free, pension-free bargain salary of just £155,000. Friends said the banker, who they described [...]
House prices still going up September 10, 2009 HOUSE prices rose 0.8 per cent in August, reducing the annual decline to 10.1 per cent, new figures from mortgage lender Halifax revealed yesterday. This marks the second successive monthly increase and the fourth so far this year, supporting the now widespread belief that the UK housing market has stabilised. More encouragingly, the less volatile [...]
Shares in Wolseley rocket as trading outpaces forecasts September 28, 2009 WOLSELEY, the building supplies group, saw its shares surge yesterday, despite reporting a loss, as headline numbers for the first half of the year beat expectations. The company, which is fighting a massive slump in the housing market, reported pre-tax losses for the year to 31 July of £766m, down from a profit of £399m [...]
Barclays seals deal to buy StanLife Bank October 26, 2009 BARCLAYS yesterday agreed to pay £226m for the banking division of Standard Life, allowing the Edinburgh-based life insurer to refocus on its core business. The relatively modest deal will add £5.5bn in deposits and 287,000 new accounts to Barclays’ massive base of 15m current account customers. The banking unit last year became a thorn in [...]
OUT OF OFFICE October 13, 2009 DAMIEN HIRST AT THE WALLACE COLLECTIONHirst, whose work fetched £100,000 at a charity sale at Christie’s on Monday night, has spent £250,000 refurbishing the Wallace Collection in preparation for his display there. Twenty-five works, never seen in Britain, will be on display, making him one of the few living artists ever to have their work [...]
OUT OF OFFICE October 13, 2009 DAMIEN HIRST AT THE WALLACE COLLECTIONHirst, whose work fetched £100,000 at a charity sale at Christie’s on Monday night, has spent £250,000 refurbishing the Wallace Collection in preparation for his display there. Twenty-five works, never seen in Britain, will be on display, making him one of the few living artists ever to have their work [...]
Crystal Amber cuts JJB stake and takes profits October 19, 2009 CRYSTAL Amber Fund, one of JJB Sports’ largest shareholders, yesterday said it had cut its stake from 14 per cent to just under eight per cent, ahead of the retailer’s £100m fundraising. Crystal Amber made a 45.3 per cent profit on the sale of 13.6m shares that it bought when the stock was 22.4p a [...]
Crystal Amber cuts JJB stake and takes profits October 19, 2009 CRYSTAL Amber Fund, one of JJB Sports’ largest shareholders, yesterday said it had cut its stake from 14 per cent to just under eight per cent, ahead of the retailer’s £100m fundraising. Crystal Amber made a 45.3 per cent profit on the sale of 13.6m shares that it bought when the stock was 22.4p a [...]