Carpetright piles on profit and closes down its Poland stores December 15, 2009 The UK’s biggest carpet retailer, Carpetright, laid out better than expected first-half results yesterday, but closed down its loss making operations in Poland. With more people moving house, underlying profits rose by 58 per cent to £13.9m, with revenues increasing by nine per cent to £258m. While opening 590 new stores across Britain and Ireland, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 3, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES AXA PUTS SPOTLESS UP FOR SALE Spotless, the French maker of laundry and cleaning products, could become the latest “pass-the-parcel” deal between private equity groups, after Axa Private Equity put it up for sale with a €600m-€700m price tag. A recent recovery in debt markets has encouraged private equity groups to become more [...]
Towry Law will use a substantial US cash injection to integrate acquisitions January 26, 2010 TOWRY Law has received a substantial cash injection from a US investment firm, it was revealed yesterday. Asset Management Finance invested an undisclosed sum in the acquisitive UK company. AMF’s funding took the form of mezzanine financing, typically used to finance expansion. But sources close to the company said the money would be used to [...]
Luxury brands sure to suffer as consumers trade down January 25, 2010 THE LUXURY brands sector finished 2009 on a high note. Luxury goods groups including Burberry, Richemont and Swiss watch-maker Swatch all reported strong sales growth in the last three months of the year and stock prices have duly headed north as consumers snapped up handbags, jewellery and watches to beat the recession blues. But there [...]
Heritage deal key to Tullow January 17, 2010 TULLOW Oil’s decision to pre-empt the sale of Heritage Oil’s Ugandan oil deposit assets to Italian oil group Eni is a brave one, and one that will secure the firm’s position among the giants of the oil world, having grown up from its humble beginnings a quarter of a century ago. Under the terms of [...]
Era of cheap money is gone forever February 16, 2010 THERE is one, overwhelming reason why interest rates are going up on products such as credit cards, even though the Bank of England’s base rate remains very low. It has nothing to do with greed, bonuses, rip-off Britain or conspiracy theories – and all to do with the costs associated with the massive amounts of [...]
Economic Diary January 17, 2010 WHILE US banks will be dominating the calendar across the Atlantic next week, in Britain it is definitely the economic releases that will be taking centre stage. Kicking off is the property website Rightmove’s January house asking price survey, released this morning. The survey shows a monthly rise of 0.4 per cent and a 4.1 [...]
THE NEW YORK REPORT November 23, 2009 US stocks snapped a three-day losing streak yesterday as stronger-than-expected home sales data fuelled optimism while a weaker dollar boosted commodity-linked stocks. Sales of previously owned US homes rose to their highest level in more than 2-1/2 years last month. That helped to ease concerns about the sector generated last week when another report showed [...]
US existing homes sales pace is up 10 per cent to two-year high November 23, 2009 SALES numbers for previously owned homes in the US jumped more than 10 per cent in October to reach the highest rate since February 2007. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said sales surged 10.1 per cent month-on-month to an annual rate of 6.1m sales, up from 5.54m in September. Analysts said the boom was [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS January 11, 2010 THE CIRCUS COMES TO COVENT GARDEN In the midst of all this frozen gloom, Covent Garden’s newest restaurant and bar – opening tonight – might be just the thing to inject some warmth and colour. Circus, on Endell Street just by Seven Dials, is a Surrealism-inspired slice of funky showmanship from renowned designer Tom Dixon [...]