BBC markets its Television Centre HQ June 13, 2011 THE BBC yesterday put its historic Television Centre on the market. The iconic grade II listed building, located near the Westfield shopping mall, is expected to fetch up to £300m. The broadcaster, led by director general Mark Thompson (pictured) said yesterday it will consider joint venture proposals, which could leave it with some presence at [...]
Kurt Geiger is sold to US retail group for £215m June 2, 2011 US designer and marketer The Jones Group yesterday bought upscale shoe retailer Kurt Geiger for £215m, giving it a foothold in the European retail market. Kurt Geiger, which has been majority owned by private equity house Graphite Capital since a management buyout in 2008, had sales of £205m in the year to April 2011. It [...]
FlyBe becomes latest victim of curse of the London floats May 5, 2011 REGIONAL airline group FlyBe yesterday saw its shares fall more than 20 per cent after scaling back guidance for its 2012 profits. The airline, which raised £60m at the end of last year for European expansion as part of its London flotation, said it had been hit by “an extremely challenging macro-economic backdrop” in its [...]
FlyBe becomes latest victim of curse of the London floats May 5, 2011 REGIONAL airline group FlyBe yesterday saw its shares fall more than 20 per cent after scaling back guidance for its 2012 profits. The airline, which raised £60m at the end of last year for European expansion as part of its London flotation, said it had been hit by “an extremely challenging macro-economic backdrop” in its [...]
OIL PULLBACK BRIGHTENS A GLOOMY VISTA June 20, 2011 THE equity market sell-off which began in May has seen most major global stock indices break below significant technical support levels. The S&P 500 and Russell 2,000 are now both trading near their 200-day moving averages (MA). For the S&P, this comes in at 1,260, with a break below here suggesting a test of 1,246 [...]
FOREIGN EXCHANGE AS MOSCOW MOVES TO BECOME WORLD-CLASS July 21, 2011 CAN MOSCOW ever become a world-class financial centre? BP may have had its fingers burned over the ill-fated Rosneft deal, but Anglo-Russian relations are being improved behind the scenes following a Moscow-London foreign exchange to set up the Moscow International Finance Centre (MIFC). First, Lord Mayor Michael Bear – the co-chairman of the MIFC Liaison [...]
Property guru is back in business May 22, 2011 THE FOUNDER of property website Rightmove has come out of retirement, setting up a conveyancing firm to try and cash in on the complexities of the UK real estate market. Harry Hill has launched In-Deed, an online conveyancing service that lets house-buyers track progress of their purchase through mobile phones and a website. Hill, who [...]
London house prices record another jump April 11, 2011 HOUSE prices in London have increased for the second straight month, as the capital continues to defy the housing market slump afflicting the rest of the UK. In London a positive balance of 21 per cent of chartered surveyors reported rising house prices in March, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) revealed today. In [...]
OFT looks for audit change May 17, 2011 UK regulators believe the market for auditing services is anti-competitive enough to warrant a full investigation and are looking for ways to improve it, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said yesterday. An OFT investigation and a high-profile House of Lords inquiry has concluded that the Big Four auditors – PriceWaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst & Young [...]
Britain’s largest quoted housing landlord cautious November 25, 2010 BRITAIN’S largest quoted housing landlord Grainger said yesterday that its full-year operating profit rose 19.5 per cent to £94.2m, but expressed caution about the outlook for the UK’s housing sector. “In light of the ongoing challenge of the current economic climate, we remain cautious about the prospects for general growth in residential values over the [...]