Sales grow at Morrisons November 19, 2009 WM Morrison yesterday unveiled strong third quarter sales, a day after the City and investors were left reeling from the shock departure of its chief executive Marc Bolland. The group said like-for-like sales rose 4.3 per cent in the 13 weeks to 1 November, just below expectations, as slowing food inflation pegged back growth from [...]
SMEs survive the recession November 8, 2009 SMALL and medium enterprises (SMEs) have proved more resilient to the recession than previously thought, according to new research published today by Kingston University. As a result of their greater flexibility and ability to adapt to changing conditions, the research found that nearly half of all SMEs were able to either maintain or increase their [...]
Lloyds closes C&G outlets June 9, 2009 LLOYDS Banking Group is to withdraw its Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) brand from the high street in a move that will see the bank wield the axe over up to 1,660 staff as it streamlines in the wake of its takeover of HBOS. The bank said it would close all 164 branches of C&G within [...]
C&C quenches its thirst with a cider acquisition spree November 30, 2009 IRISH drinks group C&C yesterday said it had acquired the UK cider assets of Constellation Brands – including Blackthorn, Olde English and Gaymer – for £45m in cash. C&C chief executive John Dunsmore said the price of the assets was “highly attractive”, while analysts said the deal handed the company a third of the UK [...]
Hands in year long plan to sue Citigroup December 13, 2009 TERRA Firma’s £2bn lawsuit against Citigroup, which it accuses of lying during its buyout of music giant EMI two years ago, had been in the pipeline for 12 months. The private equity group led by Guy Hands finally decided to strike after Citi rejected a refinancing deal that would see £1bn of loans to EMI [...]
Higher mortgage rates are here to stay July 12, 2009 SO Nationwide is offering a mortgage that will allow some of its customers suffering from negative equity to move homes. So far, so mundane – but the loan will be worth 125 per cent of the value of the new property. I spent an hour debating this with David Kuo of Motley Fool, the popular [...]
Q&A: RENTING December 17, 2009 Russell Hunt MANAGING DIRECTOR, PROPERTY HUNT Q.We’ve been putting off upscaling to a bigger family home, but don’t want to wait much longer. When should we move? AIt’s probably a mistake to wait too long and over-predict the market. If you look back to the first quarter of 2009 there were lots of good deals [...]
CITY’S FINEST TURN OUT IN STYLE TO HONOUR THE WOMEN OF THE FUTURE November 12, 2009 CORPORATE party-goers have been busy this week with a string of shindigs in a row, and last night saw the City’s female contingent descending upon the Marriott hotel in Grosvenor Square for the Women of the Future awards. The ladies weren’t short of powerful supporters, either – even Tory leader David Cameron showed up to [...]
The Gulf states need to become a marketplace October 5, 2009 LAST week, I found myself in Doha with the man who brought us JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, Nigel Newton, the chief executive of Bloomsbury Publishing. He was in town to launch qfinance.com, a website focused on serving finance professionals in Qatar, in a joint venture with the Qatar Finance Authority. There, in a sea of [...]
Anglo Irish is hit by fresh loans scandal September 21, 2009 EIGHT senior managers at the nationalised Anglo Irish Bank owed the bank a total of €21.9m (£20m) in personal loans as of the end of September last year. The group of senior figures, who are still with the bank, owed loans ranging from €835,000 to €7.1m, according to leaked internal documents. Just one – outgoing [...]