Topps Tiles gets boost from UK housing market January 7, 2014 TILING specialist Topps Tiles posted upbeat figures yesterday in a further sign that a rising housing market is having a positive effect on spending. Topps Tiles, which has 328 stores across the country, said like-for-like sales jumped by 9.3 per cent in its first quarter to 28 December, boosting shares by 2.9 per cent yesterday. [...]
Wall St The Week Ahead: Investors keen to see if rally can continue February 9, 2014 AFTER the S&P 500’s first weekly gain in a month, investors will see this week whether the US stock market’s rally of the last two days is the shape of better things to come – or if this year’s weakness will turn into a full-fledged correction. At Friday’s close, the S&P 500 was up 0.8 [...]
Boost value by asking some simple questions May 28, 2014 DATA analytics is often painted as a purely high-tech area, with PhD graduates devising complex algorithms. According to Peter Simons, technical specialist at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, this perception is wrong. He recently authored a report on Big Data for Chartered Global Management Accountants and he tells City A.M. how basic commercial curiosity [...]
Fortnum & Mason owners take home windfall £91m dividend February 10, 2014 THE CANADIAN owners of Fortnum & Mason and Associated British Foods took home £91m in dividends last year after a strong performance across its investments. Accounts filed recently on Companies House reveal that Wittington Investments, one of the main investment vehicles of the Weston Family, paid out £53m in the year to 14 September compared [...]
Mulberry profit warning sends shares tumbling 27pc January 29, 2014 Luxury brand Mulberry has issued a surprise profit warning this morning, after Christmas trading in the UK got worse and wholesale cancellations in Korea were worse than anticipated. Shares have nosedived on the news, currently down well over 25 per cent. The fashion house, which has furnished the likes of Victoria Beckham and Katherine Jenkins [...]
Building plans not enough to stop shortfall January 12, 2014 THE HOUSING supply crisis in England means the country will have a shortfall of 1m homes in just seven years, with half the needed properties in London and the south east. Countrywide’s quarterly analysis of the housing market, released today, shows how the demand for housing has steadily climbed since the financial crisis. While there [...]
Gulf Finance House to sell 75 per cent of its stake in Leeds United January 20, 2014 BAHRAIN-BASED investment firm Gulf Finance House (GFH) said yesterday it was offloading 75 per cent of English football club Leeds United to a consortium of British investors and would retain a 10 per cent stake following the sale. GFH, which bought the second-tier club in 2012, said last week that it had agreed a partial [...]
Focus on… Greenwich: Grass is always greener in Greenwich February 27, 2014 THE ROYAL Borough of Greenwich is a leafy haven bursting with heritage. Newly royal – the title was bestowed upon the town in 2012 – it was the birthplace of Tudor kings, the sanctuary of injured sailors, a popular holiday resort, and now the home of time itself. Like time, houses prices stand still for [...]
Finding strength in numbers: Meet SBD Apparel founder Ben Banks June 29, 2014 Peter Spence talks about the powerlifting business with SBD Apparel’s Ben Banks If you've ever come across the extreme world of strength sports, you’ll probably have got your first introduction stumbling through the TV channels on a Boxing Day morning. Last year, more than a million of us tuned in to watch the competitors of [...]
How regenerating failed high rises can gift London thousands of extra homes January 20, 2014 A QUIET announcement, with potentially significant implications for London’s housing crisis, lay hidden in the detail of last year’s Autumn Statement: the government will “explore options for kick-starting the regeneration of some of the worst housing estates through repayable loans.” Is this just another excuse to spend taxpayers’ money? I hope not. It could be [...]