Rose survives protest vote on double role July 10, 2008 Marks & Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose has kept his job after a planned shareholder revolt at the retailer’s annual meeting yesterday turned into no more than a whimper. Over 94 per cent of the grey-haired army that braved the rain to descend on the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank yesterday afternoon to [...]
Goodbye to carrots: the stick is back July 9, 2008 Businesses are going to find new ways to motivate staff, says Jeremy Hazlehurst The City’s bonus culture has come in for a lot of criticism recently. The Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King said that he found the idea of massive bonuses “unattractive”, while Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, also said [...]
FTSE 100 flirts with bear market July 9, 2008 London’s leading blue chip share index lurched into official bear market territory yesterday before recovering to end the day lower, but temporarily out of the danger zone. The FTSE 100 index fell below 5,385 points in early trading, 20 per cent below its June 2007 peak of 6,732, putting it in official bear territory, defined [...]
Money can still be made during bear market slump July 9, 2008 Even as the market yesterday dipped its toe into official bear territory, there’s still money to be made. Equities may be falling out of favour but currencies, commodities and good old-fashioned cash are still in demand as investments likely to weather the current financial storm. “Depending on your time scale, banking stocks look cheap if [...]
Russia’s Sibir Energy races towards FTSE July 8, 2008 London-listed mid-sized Russian oil company Sibir Energy said yesterday its full-year pre-tax profit trebled to $344m (£172m) due to higher output at its Siberian unit and strong margins from refining and retail. Sibir said its crude oil production rose 80 per cent in the year to 17.8 million barrels. Most of the output, 15.3 million [...]
Phoenix to rise to the occasion July 4, 2008 Tomorrow’s Coral-Eclipse looks an ultra competitive contest with no superstar entries like in the last two seasons, but two horses who look the type to have a very good second half of the season. Phoenix Tower is definitely the form pick with a very good second at Royal Ascot to Duke of Marmalade, while Mount [...]
French jeweller who loves the Queen sees fine times ahead for Cartier July 2, 2008 Luxury goods maker’s man in London says that the market is doing just fine, writes Zoe Strimpel Arnuad Bamberger, the head of Cartier UK, is not your typical Frenchman. He loves the Queen, has more British than European friends, and loves nothing better than a good polo match well attended by tweedy toffs. Indeed, under [...]
London’s hidden houses November 3, 2005 Author, photographer, broadcaster and campaigner Lucinda Lambton goes in search of the hidden country houses of Greater London and unearths some unexpected jewels that have somehow survived the rampages of modern development Barking and Dagenham, Carshalton, Bexley Heath and Ickenham: these are not usually names to conjure up visions of the great English country house. [...]
To have and to fold November 3, 2005 Ben Laurance meets Andrew Ritchie, the Brompton founder who has created a manufacturing rarity – a flourishing British engineering firm that exports 60 per cent of what it makes You see them nestling behind seats on trains. You see them behind desks in offices across the capital. Above all, you see them on the roads, [...]
The house scouts who do all the leg work October 27, 2005 Buy-to-let investors don’t always have the time and the knowledge to find the perfect property. It is still possible to make a living out of buy to-let — by setting up a business that helps others find and run the right investments. Buy-to-let support staff are multiplying fast in a property market which seems unable [...]