Great value mortgages are making their way to market January 13, 2013 A BLEAK wider economic picture has made the mortgage market difficult in recent years. Nonetheless, mortgage lending is set to expand by 8.3 per cent in 2013, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). And since the Funding for Lending credit easing scheme was introduced last summer, there has been an increase in the [...]
M&S’s board still backs Marc Bolland but its patience will not last forever January 9, 2013 THIS was no ordinary trading statement. If Marc Bolland, the Marks & Spencer chief executive, had sold an item from his womenswear ranges last autumn every time the retailer’s advertising slogan had been parroted back at him, he’d have wiped the floor with the rest of the high street. Last night’s hastily-released quarterly trading update [...]
Co-op poaches new group chief from Kingfisher December 19, 2012 THE Co-operative Group has hired a senior retail executive with no prior financial services experience to be its new chief executive, as it prepares to expand the size of its banking business. The banking and supermarket conglomerate said Euan Sutherland, currently chief operating officer at home improvement retailer Kingfisher, will replace Peter Marks when he [...]
Mario Bros U is fun — but is that enough? December 5, 2012 GAMES NEW SUPER MARIO BROS U From £42, amazon.co.uk *** THAT THE Italian plumber is the flagship launch title for Nintendo’s make-or-break console isn’t much of a surprise. The decision to make New Super Mario Bros U the most retro imagining of the franchise in years, though, is a bold choice, given that Nintendo has [...]
Premier to axe 900 jobs across bread division November 20, 2012 PREMIER Foods, the maker of Hovis bread, announced yesterday it is to close two bakeries and axe 900 jobs as part of plans to overhaul its troubled bread division and pay off debt. The company said bakery sites in Birmingham and Greenford will close during the course of next year, on top of the previously [...]
CBRE GI’s supermarket sweep October 15, 2012 CBRE Global Investors yesterday said it has bought five supermarkets across the UK for around £62m. The acquisitions include two Waitrose stores in Frimley and East Grinstead, two Sainsbury’s stores in Chadwell Heath and West Wickham and a Co-op in Leeds. “These five acquisitions offer secure income streams of more than 15 years and with [...]
RBS calls Virgin for deal rescue October 14, 2012 VIRGIN Money and two other institutions are in the running to take 316 branches from RBS, it emerged yesterday, two days after the planned sale to Santander collapsed. The sale was forced on RBS by the European Commission as part of the approval of its 2008 bailout, and must be completed by the end of [...]
It’s a skilled business making technology look magical October 14, 2012 ANY sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” was science fiction master Arthur C Clarke’s third law of prediction. Unfortunately, its consequences aren’t too often examined for business, as RBS seems to be now finding out. The problem with technology that looks like magic is that it looks easy – a few swipes, a few [...]
EU approves Universal’s £1.2bn bid for EMI September 21, 2012 The European Commission today endorsed Universal Music Group’s £1.2bn takeover of British record company EMI, and demanded that both companies sell a third of their assets in an attempt to cut their monopoly on the music market. The Commission said that EMI must dispose of the Chrysalis, Mute, Classics and Parlophone labels, while Universal [...]
Ex-Goldman employee’s book set to hit shelves on 22 October September 13, 2012 Just six months after he resigned from Goldman Sachs with a scathing op-ed in the New York Times, Greg Smith’s book is already written and scheduled for release on 22 October. The former employee, who claimed clients were routinely referred to as “muppets”, has rather unimaginatively titled his book: “Why I left Goldman Sachs.” The [...]