London firms give mixed views on the benefits of the Olympics August 9, 2012 LONDON businesses think the Olympics provided less of a boost in demand than they anticipated, claims a survey by Deloitte. Some 42 per cent of firms said they have seen a positive impact on demand since the start of the games compared with 27 per cent who reported a decrease. But this is in stark [...]
Direct Line’s Geddes needs to sell himself or face failure September 6, 2012 LONDON’S capital markets have been cheered a little by news that Alisher Usmanov, the Russian tycoon that owns a large shareholding in Arsenal football club, intends to raise $4bn (£2.5bn) for mobile phone operator Megafon in the next few weeks. There have been too few IPOs this year and so anything that livens up the [...]
Capital’s shops enjoy delayed Olympic boost August 12, 2012 TRADING across London’s high streets finally started to pick up in the second week of the Olympics as shoppers were lured back to the city. The British Retail Consortium, which is set to unveil figures this week for the Olympic period said “it was confident that the games delivered a boost to overall retail sales”, [...]
Business as usual at London Fashion Week September 17, 2012 British designers have achieved the balance between creative flair and commercial nous London Fashion Week has been another creative success – British designers know they have nothing left to prove on that front. But its success over the past few seasons is increasingly owed to its shrewd business acumen. Traditionally, the capital has been criticised [...]
Worst rain on record keeps London’s shoppers at home August 19, 2012 GREATER London’s shops were the worst hit by the heavy summer rains compared to their rivals elsewhere in the country. Footfall plummeted by 8.9 per cent in May, June and July in Greater London compared to the previous quarter, according to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Springboard. The dramatic drop compares to [...]
PROPERTY GROUP OF THE YEAR July 31, 2012 IT HAS been another testing year for most industries, not least for the property sector. The main theme has been the continued lack of available debt, which has dried up development projects, while ongoing uncertainty in the global economy has shaken confidence and in turn stifled demand for space. But it has not all been [...]
New offices were a safe bet for Coral October 10, 2012 THE ONE Stratford Place development is a 130,000 square feet grade A office complex, at the Westfield shopping centre in east London. The site is a stone’s throw away from the Olympic Village. Coral, the bookmaker, was the first occupier to move into the development. The company made the move from its former headquarters, about [...]
REGENT STREET SUFFERS IN STRATFORD BOOM July 31, 2012 Some retailers have been left pondering the whereabouts of the city’s Olympics tourists, as the normally bustling West End fell quiet yesterday. Londoners were told ahead of the Games to avoid the city centre.
What the other papers say this morning September 19, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Push to relax terms of tech IPOs A push to make it easier for high-growth technology companies to list in London will be launched by the government today. Ministers will put forward proposals including relaxing listing rules on the London Stock Exchange, allowing companies to list as little as 10 per cent of [...]
Retailers shut up shop on the lengthy slump July 30, 2012 INSOLVENCIES fell across the UK in the second quarter, a PwC report shows today, with even the hard-pressed construction sector seeing an improvement compared with the same period of last year. But retailers are still under pressure, defying the positive overall trend as shoppers stayed away from the high street. The three-month period saw 3,927 [...]