Nationwide grows despite tough market May 25, 2011 NATIONWIDE Building Society gained market share and grew underlying profits by almost a third in the past year despite ongoing housing market stagnation, it said yesterday. Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society, turned a £276m underlying profit in the year to April, up from £212m in April 2010, against a backdrop of low growth in [...]
Double the wow with a Costa Rica and Nicaragua duo September 11, 2011 SEPARATED only by a narrow land border and united by a single language, the two Central American countries of Costa Rica and Nicaragua couldn’t be more different. On one side Costa Rica, with its well-developed, well-trodden tourist trail, offers unrivalled wildlife-watching opportunities and some of the most luxurious hotels in the region. On the other, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 11, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LI & FUNG UPBEAT OVER THE GLOBAL ECONOMY Li & Fung, the Hong Kong-headquartered sourcing company for retailers such as Walmart and Debenhams, sounded an upbeat note on Thursday, asserting that business conditions were “not at all” like those in 2008”, despite the current uncertainty over prospects for the global economy. Bruce Rockowitz, [...]
Beware retail banks taking ever greater risks June 19, 2011 WHEN it was announced that George Osborne was going to endorse the Vickers Commission’s suggestion that the retail arms of UK banks be subject to some kind of “ring-fencing” in his speech at Mansion House last week, £3.5bn was wiped off the collective market value of the UK’s four biggest banks almost immediately. Judging from [...]
Beware retail banks taking ever greater risks June 19, 2011 WHEN it was announced that George Osborne was going to endorse the Vickers Commission’s suggestion that the retail arms of UK banks be subject to some kind of “ring-fencing” in his speech at Mansion House last week, £3.5bn was wiped off the collective market value of the UK’s four biggest banks almost immediately. Judging from [...]
INDIAN CITY OASIS SEEKS WINE-LOVING RESIDENTS August 31, 2011 BENGALARU is becoming one of the most important global centres for technology and India’s most developed city. So the IT capital formerly known as Bangalore was the obvious choice for the latest multimillion-pound scheme from Vinay Kapoor, the president and chief executive of Westcourt UK, who contributed to the design and development of the World [...]
INDIAN CITY OASIS SEEKS WINE-LOVING RESIDENTS August 31, 2011 BENGALARU is becoming one of the most important global centres for technology and India’s most developed city. So the IT capital formerly known as Bangalore was the obvious choice for the latest multimillion-pound scheme from Vinay Kapoor, the president and chief executive of Westcourt UK, who contributed to the design and development of the World [...]
Dilnot review urges role for finance industry July 4, 2011 A review proposing a radical overhaul of how UK elderly care is funded has called for the financial services industry to help people cover the costs of their contributions. Economist Andrew Dilnot has called for the current system of means testing, which forces people with more than £23,250 in assets to fund their care in [...]
Facebook hires Clinton’s former press secretary June 15, 2011 FACEBOOK has hired Bill Clinton’s former press secretary to head up its policy and corporate comms team. Joe Lockhart was the chief spokesman and senior adviser to President Clinton between 1998 and 2000. Lockhart is the latest marquee appointment for the world’s largest social network. In May it hired two former officials who worked for [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 26, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LAW FIRM STOPS WORK ON INQUIRY INTO PHONE HACKING BCL Burton Copeland, the law firm, is no longer advising News International about an investigation into phone hacking. The firm stopped working for NI, which publishes Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers, last week, insiders familiar with the situation said, after it was called in at [...]