Shaftesbury keen to buy after slump December 1, 2009 THE LONDON landlord Shaftesbury reported a fall in the value of its property last year, but forecast improving demand and more acquisitions. Shaftesbury, which owns more than 450 properties focused in the West End, said its portfolio was worth £1.21bn at the end of September, down 3.8 per cent against a year ago after falls [...]
Wagamama halts expansion November 8, 2009 Wagamama, the canteen-style noodle bar chain, has said that it has temporarily halted its expansion plans, but is set to resume openings in the spring after a robust financial performance. The Japanese restaurant chain, which has 65 restaurants, said operating profits jumped 75 per cent to £7.1m for the year to April 2009 on sales [...]
M&B opens door to rebel appointments December 17, 2009 PUB and restaurant operator Mitchells & Butlers has invited the four candidates put forward to join its board by rebel shareholder Joe Lewis to meet with headhunters and its nomination committee. The operator of All Bar One and Harvester yesterday said the meetings would enable it to formulate its recommendations as to how shareholders should [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS December 14, 2009 DEAN STREET TOWNHOUSE OPENS There’s a new place to go to in Soho, from the people behind Soho House. Dean Street Townhouse is a chic little boutique hotel with a restaurant overseen by The Ivy’s former senior sous chef, Stephen Tonkin. There’s an old school British sensibility with oysters, fish and chips and mince with [...]
MEETING OF MINDS AS CITY TITANS PARTNER UP January 19, 2010 IT’S not every day you see an alliance struck up between one of the Square Mile’s most outspoken private equity veterans and the only female chief executive of an independent City stockbroker. But when Alchemy Partners founder Jon Moulton yesterday confirmed he had started in his new non-executive chairman role at broker FinnCap, headed up [...]
DIAMOND TAKES HARD LINE ON BONUS ROW February 16, 2010 AS AN investment banking doyen continually under the cosh these days with regard to bonus payments, it must be tough to keep a calm and unruffled façade at all times. Bob Diamond, the president of Barclays and head of its money-spinning investment bank Barclays Capital – yesterday kept mostly schtum at the group’s annual results [...]
HEINZ TESTS OUT ITS NEW CAFE IN THE CITY January 12, 2010 FOR those City workers already missing their comfort foods after the Christmas break, food group Heinz has come up with the ideal solution. Just three minutes walk from Liverpool Street station, Heinz is trialling a cafe this week whose power lunch is the well-known staple of baked beans on toast. This is the first restaurant [...]
HEDGE FUND FASHION GURU HAS A SALES BOOM February 11, 2010 WE ALWAYS knew women were good at multi-tasking, but Britt Lintner really does take the concept to a new extreme. Regular readers may remember Lintner, who heads up her own flourishing womenswear label while managing to hold down a tough job in hedge fund sales at GLG Partners. And now I hear that not only [...]
D&D to open London hotel November 11, 2009 D&D London, the company formerly known as Conran Restaurants, is marking its return to the hotel business with a new £50m boutique hotel in Moorgate. D&D, which is still 51 per cent owned by Sir Terence Conran, will work with property developer Frogmore to create a luxury 80-room hotel, which it hopes will receive planning [...]
Paradise complete with tax benefits January 28, 2010 WITH taxes for top earners sure to increase in the coming years, there has been much talk of City types moving abroad. Switzerland has been the country mentioned most often. The lure of Geneva, Zurich and Zug, it is supposed, will prove irresistible to London-based bankers because of the low tax regime. But will it [...]