Which asset is the true safe haven? GOLD OR SHARES February 26, 2012 TOM WINNIFRITH WE ARE entering an inflationary environment. This is the 1970s all over again. Across the globe governments are relaxing monetary policy. In China and India this is an attempt to keep their economies growing rapidly. In the West it is a desperate attempt to breathe life into economies which face structural issues no-one [...]
Which asset is the true safe haven? GOLD OR SHARES February 26, 2012 TOM WINNIFRITH WE ARE entering an inflationary environment. This is the 1970s all over again. Across the globe governments are relaxing monetary policy. In China and India this is an attempt to keep their economies growing rapidly. In the West it is a desperate attempt to breathe life into economies which face structural issues no-one [...]
Rothschild-backed renewable energy group Tamar planning to raise £65m February 22, 2012 FINANCIER Jacob Rothschild’s London-listed RIT Capital Partners, Sainsbury and the Duchy of Cornwall are among a group of investors who plan to invest more than £65m in a clean technology start-up focused on producing energy from organic waste matter. The new company, Tamar Energy, will develop a network of around 44 anaerobic digestion plants to [...]
MINISTER SLAMS JOB SNOB CRITICS February 20, 2012 CHRIS Grayling, the employment minister, yesterday rounded on critics of the government’s work experience programme, describing them as “job snobs”. He was speaking in response to opponents of the scheme who branded it “21st century slavery” and “forced labour” after it emerged Tesco had offered an unpaid placement stacking shelves in its supermarkets. The scheme [...]
Tesco’s market share takes a fresh tumble February 15, 2012 TESCO endured a double blow yesterday, as it suffered a fresh drop in UK market share in the latest Nielsen figures, and set a leaving date for its long-standing director Andrew Higginson. The supermarket giant’s share of the UK grocery market fell 0.5 percentage points on a year ago in the three months to 4 [...]
Debt consolidation hits £1.5bn February 13, 2012 Consumers are set to borrow £1.5bn for debt consolidation in the thirst three months of 2012, according to data out yesterday from Sainsbury’s Finance. The 157,000 loans account for almost one in three of all unsecured loans taken out in the period, and average £9,800 each. “For those who perhaps have balances on credit cards [...]
Sainsbury’s calls for high street reform February 12, 2012 SAINSBURY’S chief executive Justin King will this week urge the UK to be “brave enough” to shrink its ailing high streets and convert empty stores into houses or even classrooms. King will call for a greater mix between “retail and other activities” to help make high streets “not just a poor second to out of [...]
Retail gloom takes toll on British Land February 9, 2012 BRITISH LAND has seen growth of its net asset value stall in the third quarter as the ongoing consumer downturn led to a slight dip in value across its retail portfolio. The landlord – whose tenants include Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Debenhams – said its retail estate, which accounts for 61 per cent of its property [...]
Tesco’s slice of market shrinks January 31, 2012 SUPERMARKET giant Tesco has seen its market share fall under 30 per cent for the first time in almost seven years as it struggled to recover from its dire Christmas trading performance, according to new data from Kantar Worldpanel. Tesco’s market share – based on a measure of how much money has gone through its [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 31, 2012 WSP Group WSP Environment and Energy, part of the FTSE 250-listed WSP Group, has hired Karen McAllister as director of the environmental planning division in London. McAllister is a former director of RPS, prior to which she was a director at the Town Planning Consultancy, which was acquired by RPS in 2001. Recent projects include [...]