What the other papers say this morning – 14 May 2014 May 13, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Danone in talks over medical sale Danone is in talks with Nestle and other potential buyers over the disposal of most of its medical nutrition division, as it eyes an expansion of its baby food business. The French group, which is being advised by JP Morgan, stands to raise up to €5bn (£4.07bn) [...]
Letters to the Editor – 14/03 – Splitting debts, Best of Twitter March 13, 2014 Splitting debts [Re: The big independence lie: Scotland could keep the pound, Wednesday] Is Scotland walking away from its “share” of UK debt really that absurd? Did the Baltic states take any Russian debt after the breakup of the Soviet Union? No. Of course, independence supporters have proposed that Scotland would indeed take on its [...]
Marriage of the old and the new in St John’s Wood February 13, 2014 Meet the modern townhouse with six floors, a home cinema, a gym, and a spare studio apartment LONDON TOWNHOUSES are the last traditonal homes in this thoroughly modern city. But increasing demand has inspired a developer to see if it could build one that would take the contemporary market by storm. Park View, in St [...]
What you need to know before the US open February 25, 2014 Housing and retail are in focus today, with figures just in. House prices are still rising, but the pace has moderated a bit. The house price index for December increased 0.8 per cent – a revised figure showed they fell 0.1 per cent in November. The S&P/Case-Shiller indices rose 13.4 per cent in the month. [...]
UK house prices growth continues forward march January 14, 2014 House prices increased 5.4 per cent in the 12 months to November 2013 – down from the 5.5 per cent increase seen from October 2012 to 2013 but still showing growth gaining momentum across the country, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. England saw 5.6 per cent growth in the 12 months, [...]
What you need to know before the open – 18/02 February 18, 2014 European equities are expected higher today, with investors banking on affirming economic sentiment data, in the form of Germany’s ZEW survey. Also in focus is UK inflation data at 9.30 this morning. In Asia, Tokyo stocks jumped 3.1 per cent – their best session since August – after the Bank of Japan confirmed it’s keeping [...]
Best of the Brokers for 2 August 2013 August 1, 2013 ENTERPRISE INNS Deutsche Bank has raised the pub company’s target price by 40 per cent to 190p as it reaffirmed its “buy” rating. The bank’s analysts said that the recent good weather should see a return to profit in the chain’s third quarter results, due next week. KINGFISHER A recent meeting with Kingfisher’s management failed [...]
Wages left far behind as house prices rocket February 10, 2014 THE AVERAGE salary in England would have grown by £29,000 in the past decade and a half if wages kept up with house price inflation, according to shocking new figures. Research by housing charity Shelter shows that average earnings would have been over £55,000, rather than just below £26,000, if pay had risen at the [...]
Travis Perkins profits jump as Help to Buy boosts confidence February 26, 2014 Building merchant Travis Perkins has reported a rise in profits before tax of 12 per cent to £321m for the year ended 31 December. Revenue climbed to over £5bn, with annual growth of five per cent on a like-for-like basis. The company partly attributed the rising confidence in the building industry to the government's controversial [...]
Stamp duty is feeding the growing bubble in London’s house prices February 16, 2014 SUPPORTERS of financial transaction taxes (FTT), often known as Robin Hood taxes, claim that they can make markets safer. But a look at London’s frothy housing market makes this argument difficult to sustain. FTTs remove liquidity from markets, making bubbles more likely to form. And it looks like London house prices are booming thanks to [...]