JJB shares dive as it looks for a white knight August 30, 2012 SEVERAL bidders have expressed interest in taking control of crisis-hit retailer JJB Sports, which was forced to put itself up for sale yesterday after failing to secure fresh funding from investors. The company, which has 180 stores and employs 4,000 people, has been locked in discussions with suppliers and investors in recents months in a [...]
Green shoots for retailers and the housing industry March 21, 2012 CONSUMER spending has been “a little more resilient than expected” in the opening months of the year, a survey from the Bank of England revealed yesterday. While consumer demand was only growing “at a gradual pace”, the summary of business conditions offers a glimmer of hope for the economic recovery. “Annual growth of spending on [...]
Think-tank: Scrap green belt to boost GDP growth March 7, 2012 RESTRICTIVE planning laws are holding back economic growth, hurting the poor and pushing down the quality of houses, a new report claims. The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) has called for a radical shake up of planning rules that would see the green belt scrapped, devolution of planning powers to local authorities, and the privatisation of [...]
What the other papers say this morning October 10, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Goldman “muppet hunt” draws blank Goldman Sachs has told its board of directors that an internal investigation found little substance to allegations made by Greg Smith, the disaffected employee who claimed the bank has a “toxic environment” where bankers refer to clients as “muppets”. The review found that weeks before his public resignation [...]
Barratt sees swing back into profits February 22, 2012 BARRATT Developments swung back into profit in the first half of the year thanks to its increased focus on higher margin regions, building houses rather than flats and developing low-cost land bought after the 2008 property crash. Shares, which are up almost 50 per cent since Christmas, rose almost eight per cent yesterday after the [...]
A superlative-defying Range Rover October 30, 2012 I’ve only been driving Land Rover’s new Range Rover for five minutes and already I have had to swerve to avoid a man running down the motorway. Not across the motorway you understand but down it, as if he is pretending to be a car. Driving the new Range Rover in Morocco is challenging. Pedestrians [...]
Mortgage lending sticks to upward path March 20, 2012 MORTGAGE lending has increased for the seventh consecutive month, on a year-on-year basis, new figures showed yesterday. Gross lending stood at £10.7bn, up slightly from £10.65bn in January and 14 per cent higher than the £9.4bn last February, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) revealed yesterday. That is lower than the £12.22bn in December and [...]
Loophole stops industry from going full speed October 4, 2012 FINALLY, some good news. Not only did car sales improve by more than expected in September, but the gains came mostly through consumer spending rather than corporate sales. But wait – a new car? That’s a pretty luxurious purchase in these straitened times, surely the squeezed middle can’t be cutting back on everything else and [...]
House prices rise more than expected March 1, 2012 House prices rose more than expected in February, data from mortgage lender Nationwide showed. Nationwide said that house prices ticked up by a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent on the month – the biggest rise since April 2010 – and were 0.9 percent higher than a year earlier. That is follows a surprise monthly fall in [...]
Scardino exit at Pearson sparks FT sale rumours October 3, 2012 THE FTSE 100’s first female chief executive Dame Marjorie Scardino stepped down as head of Financial Times owner Pearson yesterday, after more than 15 years in charge. Scardino, who has transformed Pearson since she took charge in 1997, will be replaced by the head of the firm’s successful education unit John Fallon. The move sparked [...]