Chief hired to turn around Game Group June 17, 2010 EMBATTLED computer games specialist Game Group yesterday brought back a little cheer to investors by hiring a new chief executive, two months after a 28 per cent plunge in yearly profits sparked the abrupt departure of former boss Lisa Morgan. Ian Shepherd, a former Vodafone executive and “keen gamer for over 30 years”, is to [...]
CITY VIEWS: CHRISTMAS SHOPPING ONLINE OR HIGH ST? November 16, 2009 HOCINE YAICHE MOODYS“I am always a last minute shopper, so I have never actually done my Christmas shopping online. It is also a bit a problem doing it online as you then have to get it delivered, and are at work most of the time. But I do think the trend is probably more towards [...]
More pain for restaurants as firms cut back on Christmas November 12, 2009 THE number of restaurants falling into insolvency is set to rise again next year after one of the quietest corporate Christmases on record. The industry’s woes over the financial crisis have been well publicised by the difficulties experienced by the UK’s celebrity chefs. Gordon Ramsay revealed earlier this year that his restaurant empire had teetered [...]
Prudential June 1, 2010 EVERYTHING about Prudential’s play for AIA happened back-to-front. Desperate to pounce on the Asian business before it floated, Prudential boss Tidjane Thiam raced in with the generous offer of $35.5bn (£25bn) – 25 times new business profits, a multiple unheard of for insurers even in China – and then had to work backwards to model [...]
The defence industry boss who is reshaping his firm for new realities September 28, 2010 FOR Cobham’s chief executive Andy Stevens, life is measured out in five-year plans. The head of the FTSE 100 defence company first joined the business in 2003 as head of its aerospace division and played a key role in the 2005 strategic review that “took a root a branch look at our operations and decided [...]
PROPERTY BIGWIGS GET OUT THEIR WALLETS FOR A DAY AT THE RACES July 11, 2010 FOR STARTERS, let’s head down to Ascot racecourse – always a pleasure – for the annual Property Race Day, playground of the suited and booted doyens of the property world. This year marked a change of scenery for the charity event set up by Parkwood Asset Management founder Derek Lucie-Smith, which moved from Sandown Park [...]
Majestic Wine ready to toast healthy figures May 17, 2010 MAJESTIC wine said yesterday its profits for the year which ended in March would come in “at the upper end of analysts’ expectations”. The range for underlying profits forecast up until today had been as low as £15.9m to as much as £18m. That is a sharp recovery from the previous year’s £12.7m. After Christmas [...]
BAreadies itself for strikes this Christmas October 26, 2009 FEARS of a bleak?Christmas for British Airways (BA) were growing last night, after the Unite union said it would ballot its 14,000 cabin crew on strike action. Unions and BA management have been at loggerheads over cost-cutting at the airline, which is struggling to weather the financial storm. Nine months of talks fell apart yesterday [...]
Spending drop for Christmas, says Execution November 1, 2009 BRITONS are planning to spend less on gifts this Christmas than last year as they worry about rising unemployment and taxes, putting into question signs of a recovery in consumer spending, a survey showed yesterday. Broker Execution interviewed a representative sample of 2,000 Britons from October 20 to 26 and found participants on average plan [...]
Why Britain needs to save far more July 20, 2010 THERE is no better way to kill a dinner party discussion than to bring up the subject of pensions. Just ask your friends when they expect to retire, and how much they hope to earn when they stop working. The usual answer – apart from the lucky few who still enjoy final salary schemes – [...]