Beat the blues with a slice of Caribbean sun March 25, 2010 WINTER is finally over, and the sun has been reminding us all of its existence in the past week or so. If you are already thinking ahead to next year and wondering how you will get through another few months of darkness and “snow days”, there’s a solution: buy a home in the Caribbean. Barbados [...]
The Beatles were right about taxes February 18, 2010 BEATLEMANIA is back – or at least that is what it is starting to feel like when one reads the endless coverage of the proposed sale of the Abbey Road studios by EMI, Guy Hands’ troubled music giant. Let me join in: the current political climate reminds me increasingly of that described so beautifully in [...]
COSY AND TOUGH IS THE KEY FOR WINTER BOOTS January 14, 2010 Sara Hollamby Style Counsel IT’S not until you get extreme weather like this that you suddenly realise how totally useless your best fashion boots are for outside wear. With this amount of snow and ice, which looks set for a couple of weeks at least, you really need proper snow boots. Not ever having owned [...]
Bankers win bonuses back August 2, 2009 FOUR former Dresdner Kleinwort bankers have won a €12.6m (£10.8m) legal battle against Commerzbank after claiming the German bank reneged on guaranteed bonuses after it bought Dresdner last year. Commerzbank acquired Dresdner Kleinwort in January, but the investment-bank posted a €6.3bn loss for 2008. Commerzbank was then forced to take taxpayers’ money in a state [...]
Bankers win bonuses back August 2, 2009 FOUR former Dresdner Kleinwort bankers have won a €12.6m (£10.8m) legal battle against Commerzbank after claiming the German bank reneged on guaranteed bonuses after it bought Dresdner last year. Commerzbank acquired Dresdner Kleinwort in January, but the investment-bank posted a €6.3bn loss for 2008. Commerzbank was then forced to take taxpayers’ money in a state [...]
Why strategic downsizing is on the up these days January 21, 2010 EVERYBODY’S doing it. Not smoking or breaking their New Year’s resolutions – though there’s a fair bit of that going on too – but downsizing. Sue Laming, of Savills, says: “Finally, there’s decent value in the market. Nobody’s getting short-changed. Only 18 months ago there was virtually no downsizing, only distress sales. But now that [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 24, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph TCHENGUIZ BROTHERS IN £2BN BANK CLAIMS Companies linked to Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz, the property entrepreneurs, have filed creditors’ claims totalling £2.26bn against Kaupthing, despite being among the failed Icelandic bank’s biggest borrowers. It emerged last summer that Robert Tchenguiz had borrowed €1.7bn (£1.5bn) from the bank and Vincent Tchenguiz [...]
Warren Buffett’s next task: train a successor February 28, 2010 WHEN the times get tough, everyone turns to old favourites. This is especially true of investors, hence the renewed interest in two of the greatest names in finance. Anthony Bolton, Britain’s stock-picker extraordinaire, has come out of retirement to launch a new Fidelity China fund; and on Saturday Warren Buffett’s shareholder letter enthused his army [...]
Firth shines in fashionable drama February 11, 2010 Film A SINGLE MAN Cert: 12A Fashion designer – and world’s most stylish dude – Tom Ford makes his directorial debut with A Single Man, and boy won’t he let you forget it. An adaptation of a Christopher Isherwood novel about a day in the life of a college professor named George who is grieving [...]
UNDER THE HAMMER November 30, 2009 A FRENCH court fined eBay €1.7m (£1.5m) for violating a 2008 injunction preventing French users of the online auction site from buying or selling certain LVMH cosmetics on any eBay website. The website said the fine was too high and that the injunction – blocking French eBay users from buying or selling designated LVMH cosmetics [...]