CITY LOSES TO OCTOPUS IN FOOTY FORECASTS July 12, 2010 OH, HOW they chortled in the City yesterday at comparisons between the world’s most famous cephalopod and those investment banks who dared to put out predictions on the outcome of the World Cup. Paul the psychic octopus, they sniggered, had managed to get EVERY SINGLE ONE of his predictions correct, beating statistical odds of 1/256. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 16, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES HEDGE FUNDS HIT BY MAY VOLATILITY Some of the world’s biggest hedge funds have suffered significant losses this month after high levels of volatility across markets and the shortlived stock market plunge in New York combined to wipe billions from portfolios. Losses in the first week of May alone erased all gains made [...]
LIB DEMS SET TO RIDE CREST OF BEER WAVE April 15, 2010 A WELCOME pre-election boost for Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, from the most unusual of quarters – the traditionally right-leaning environs of the City. It’s just 20 days before polling day and Clegg’s policies haven’t exactly met with rapt enthusiasm from the Square Mile, what with proposals to slap a “mansion tax” on homes worth [...]
HOW THE AGREEMENT AFFECTS THE CITY May 20, 2010 BANKING • The coalition has agreed to impose some kind of levy on the banking industry, although its exact form has yet to be decided. The Tories want to introduce a fee on banks’ wholesale funding, while the Liberal Democrats would prefer a tax on profits. • There is a vague commitment to tackle “unacceptable [...]
Pubcos cheer OFT decision October 22, 2009 Beer campaigners have failed in a bid to force leased pub operators to allow their landlords to buy beer supplies from rivals, boosting shares in the sector. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has rejected a complaint from the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), which claimed that tied arrangements forcing pub tenants to buy solely [...]
M&B steps up board battle December 1, 2009 PUBS group Mitchells & Butlers yesterday ramped up its row with its major shareholder, billionaire investor Joe Lewis, removing his representatives from the board and appointing a new chairman in defiance of his wishes. Richard McGuire and Douglas McMahon, representatives of Lewis’s investment vehicle, Piedmont, have been told by M&B to step down. Simon Laffin, [...]
PARTY STALWART TEBBIT HAPPY TO STICK HIS NECK OUT FOR THE CITY October 8, 2009 TO ONE of the City’s favourite haunts, Boisdale of Bishopsgate, last night for a special members’ game dinner hosted by Lord Tebbit, staunch Thatcherite and eternal bearer of the beacon of those on the right of politics. Tebbit, as is his wont, was happy to wax lyrical about the issues facing the Tories in the [...]
PARTY STALWART TEBBIT HAPPY TO STICK HIS NECK OUT FOR THE CITY October 8, 2009 TO ONE of the City’s favourite haunts, Boisdale of Bishopsgate, last night for a special members’ game dinner hosted by Lord Tebbit, staunch Thatcherite and eternal bearer of the beacon of those on the right of politics. Tebbit, as is his wont, was happy to wax lyrical about the issues facing the Tories in the [...]
BT BOSS CAN’T GET BROADBAND AT HOME July 20, 2009 ARE YOU unable to get broadband access at home because of your postcode? Well, it turns out that you are in good company. Not even BT chairman Sir Michael Rake is able to access broadband in the usual way from his Hambledon Valley home, and is instead forced to be a guinea pig for the [...]
Party time for Beijing stars August 26, 2008 Celebrations for Great Britain’s most successful Olympic Games for 100 years are set to continue into today as the nation’s new sporting heroes toast their overwhelming success in Beijing. The 300-strong squad were met by crowds of flag-waving fans yesterday as they touched down at Heathrow Airport on a British Airways plane painted with a [...]