Cleaning up: how selling soap can make millions April 10, 2011 THE 90s recession didn’t really affect me. Well, apart from the fact I couldn’t find a job – that’s why I created one,” says Lara Morgan casually. She describes that job simply as “selling soap.” But more accurately, it was a multi-national hotel toiletry supplier called Pacific Direct that grew into a business that supplied [...]
The boss of the UK’s largest broker sees a long road back to recovery March 28, 2011 The chief executive of the UK’s largest independent stockbroker Collins Stewart takes a deep breath and thinks for a moment. After a pause, Mark Brown, who is sitting in his large modern office with floor-to-ceiling views of the City, says: “I think we are about halfway towards getting the firm back to where it should [...]
What the other papers say this morning February 13, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES SIEMENS EYES BIG NETWORK PURCHASES Siemens is looking out for large acquisitions to expand its power networks and plant automation businesses, in a fundamental strategic shift by the German industrial conglomerate. Joe Kaeser, Siemens’ chief financial officer, said Europe’s largest engineering group by sales had reached the “management maturity” to pursue significant takeovers. [...]
Debenhams: our market share is up January 10, 2011 DEBENHAMS claimed it was winning market share from rivals as it posted a small rise in sales over the key Christmas trading period that was affected by December’s snow. Sales at stores open more than a year increased 0.3 per cent including VAT sales tax in the 19 weeks to 8 January. Chief executive Rob [...]
Debenhams markets share “on the rise” January 10, 2011 Debenhams has claimed it is winning market share from rivals as it posted a small rise in sales over the key Christmas trading period that was hit by December’s snow. Chief Executive Rob Templeman said he was pleased with the department store group’s Christmas performance given the adverse weather that gripped the nation last month [...]
Debenhams markets share “on the rise” January 10, 2011 Debenhams has claimed it is winning market share from rivals as it posted a small rise in sales over the key Christmas trading period that was hit by December’s snow. Chief Executive Rob Templeman said he was pleased with the department store group’s Christmas performance given the adverse weather that gripped the nation last month [...]
EMI in fresh sale talks February 1, 2011 GUY Hands had barely surrendered control of EMI to Citigroup last night before speculation started over who its next owner might be. Citi, which took EMI from Hands’ private equity firm Terra Firma last night after declaring its £3.4bn debt mountain unsustainable, denied it had solicited interest from potential buyers. “There is no sales process [...]
The Swiss town that’s emerging from the shadows April 14, 2011 ANDERMATT – a sleeping beauty of a village, nestled in the Urseren valley in central Switzerland – is set to be awoken from its slumber and transformed into one of the Alps’ major year-round holiday destinations. The prince in question here is the self-described “town-developer” Samir Sawiris. He plans to revolutionise the town’s tourism industry [...]
INVESTORS GIVEN CAUSE TO CHEER January 17, 2011 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT EUROZONE investors had cause to cheer last week as bond auctions in Portugal, Spain and Italy went better than expected. As the auctions approached, their success looked pretty much guaranteed thanks to the efforts of the European Central Bank (ECB), along with promises of support from China and even chronically-indebted Japan. [...]
Weak housing data drag equities down August 24, 2010 US stocks slumped, with the Dow and S&P 500 on track for a fourth day of declines as an unexpectedly large drop in home sales ratcheted up concerns about the economic recovery. Sales of US existing homes in July plummeted 27 percent to their slowest pace in 15 years, an industry group reported. The drop [...]