M&S and ITV brighten up dull day of trading for FTSE November 18, 2009 THE UK’s main market ticked down slightly yesterday, as an unexpected drop in US housing figures spooked investors and weakness in food retailers and tobacco firms outpaced gains in miners and energy companies. The FTSE100 closed 0.1 per cent lower at 5,342.13 with Cable & Wireless, Unilever, Vodafone and HSBC going ex-dividend. Marks & Spencer [...]
Crossrail’s chairman says the 16bn project is set to push ahead in 2010 November 17, 2009 The last time I saw Terry Morgan was a year ago at 2am, underneath Leicester Square. Then he was the Tube Lines chief executive and was standing on the underground tracks between Leicester Square and Covent Garden stations, telling a couple of engineers exactly what he thought of their work. This meeting could not be [...]
Art collections at banks are becoming a big business November 17, 2009 YESTERDAY it was announced that Asia’s biggest art fair, the Hong Kong-based Art HK, is to be sponsored for the next five years by Deutsche Bank. The fair’s previous sponsor, Lehman Brothers, had its art collection auctioned off earlier this month to the tune of $1.35m, including works by Pop Art superstars Roy Lichtenstein and [...]
THE LONDON REPORT November 16, 2009 BRITAIN’S top share index hit its highest closing level in more than 14 months yesterday as a weaker dollar sparked a rally in metals prices and some upbeat US data lifted market sentiment. The FTSE 100 ended up 86.29 points, or 1.6 per cent, at 5,382.67, its highest close since September 2008 and notching up [...]
Koffman’s pop-up proves that he’s still the king of London fine dining November 9, 2009 NOSTALGIA is a wonderful thing. When it was announced that Pierre Koffman would come out of retirement to run a restaurant on the roof of Selfridges for one week only, the phones rang off the hook with former customers who remembered his Chelsea restaurant Tante Claire, which closed several years ago. But the crowd wasn’t [...]
KRAFT November 9, 2009 KRAFT has enlisted a syndicate of banks to agree to a £5.5bn credit facility to finance the cash portion of its bid and go towards paying down some of Cadbury’s debt, should the bid succeed. Citigroup Global Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities and HSBC Securities served as joint bookrunners, while Citibank and Deutsche Bank Cayman Islands [...]
THE LONDON REPORT November 9, 2009 BRITAIN’S top share index hit its highest closing level in more than two weeks yesterday as the G20’s pledge to keep stimulus in place bolstered investors’ risk appetite, with miners and oil stocks leading the charge. The FTSE 100 closed up 92.46 points, or 1.8 per cent, at 5,235.18, the highest close since 23 October, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPER SAY THIS MORNING November 8, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphBAE HIRES PINOCHET LAWYER FOR SFO FIGHTBAE Systems has instructed General Pinochet’s former QC to handle its defence if the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is successful in persuading the Attorney General to proceed with a fraud prosecution against the arms manufacturer. GOVERNMENT PLANS FAST-TRACK NUCLEAR EXPANSIONThe government is set to hand an [...]
Saying “aloha” to the City’s coolest new watering hole November 8, 2009 YOU don’t have to be a millionaire to come here,” says Nick House, before a backdrop of Hawaiian masks, carved screens, coconuts and bamboo chairs. Then he laughs and jokes: “But it helps.” With his business partner Piers Adam, House is one of the biggest names on the London clubbing scene. One of the pair’s [...]
THE LONDON REPORT November 4, 2009 LONDON’S leading shares ended 1.4 per cent higher yesterday, boosted by a rebound from miners and banks, with retailers Next and Marks & Spencer also higher after posting forecast-beating figures. At the close, the FTSE 100 was up 70.68 points at 5,107.89, recouping all of Tuesday’s losses when the index fell 1.3 per cent to [...]