Ships ahoy for Mark Carney at Mansion House Banquet for Bankers June 12, 2014 Mark Carney’s adventurous side came out at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet for Bankers last night in Mansion House. The governor of the Bank of England executed a perfect dive into the white waters of nautical analogies, bravely choosing a canoe as his vessel of choice (so very Canadian). “Rather than appeal to the stately Duchess [...]
Pictures: The Boris Johnson-themed Japanese restaurant at County Hall June 11, 2014 London’s blonde-mopped mayor has had many a tribute to him in the capital; there’s Boris Bikes, there’s the oft-pedalled but as yet inexistant Boris Airport and now we’ve got the Boris restaurant. You might not have put Boris and Japanese cuisine together normally, but County Hall’s Izakaya Boris has. There’s a plastic [...]
Boris and Giuliani do their math June 10, 2014 THE mayor of London and former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani put their heads together at Tower 42 yesterday, where they both met with the winners of London Count on Us primary school maths challenge. Ten-year-old pupil Azeezat Yusuff of Kender Primary School, in Lewisham, had thrashed Boris in a battle of the brains [...]
Warren Buffett was spending $15bn on renewable energy. He’s now upped that to $30bn June 10, 2014 Yesterday, it momentarily slipped Warren Buffett’s mind how much money Berkshire Hathaway is shelling out on wind and solar power in the US – $15bn (£8.9bn). Speaking at the Edison Electric Institute’s annual convention in Las Vegas, the guru investor turned to deputy Greg Abel for a reminder of the figure, before coming back with, [...]
Richard Branson leads $25m investment round in FX group TransferWise June 9, 2014 RICHARD Branson has led a $25m (£15m) investment round in London-based money transfer business TransferWise, the company will reveal today. TransferWise is an international money transfer platform, using peer-to-peer technology to cut the exchange fees charged by banks and brokers. “Financial services such as foreign exchange have been ripe for disruption for decades and it’s [...]
Sports Direct investors attack new bonus plan for Mike Ashley June 9, 2014 Sports Direct shareholders lashed out yesterday, claiming they had not been consulted on the latest proposal for a bonus share scheme that seeks to reward its founder Mike Ashley. The retailer has set out plans for a share programme that would reward Ashley alongside Sports Direct’s 3,000 employees, after shareholders rejected two earlier attempts to [...]
Why Britain’s battle against Jean-Claude Juncker may not be worth it June 9, 2014 WHEN Prime Ministers pick EU battles, they have to choose carefully. Like it or not, the UK’s historically unenthusiastic approach to EU integration – an understandable one at that – leaves it open to accusations of holding the rest of Europe over a barrel whenever the government appears to drag its feet. In the current [...]
Elon Musk: “I didn’t think SpaceX or Tesla would work” June 9, 2014 Billionaire tech titan Elon Musk – the brain behind Tesla electric cars, a project to colonise Mars and Hyperloop – has more ideas in a year than most people in a lifetime. But speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, the serial entrepreneur admitted that he hasn’t always had faith that things will come [...]
Sports Direct launches third attempt for Mike Ashley bonus June 9, 2014 Sports Direct is initiating a third attempt to award founder Mike Ashley a bonus, after two previous attempts failed due to shareholder opposition. The 2015 bonus share scheme provides for the grant of no-cost options of up to 25m ordinary shares in the company to 3,000 employees, including Ashley. The scheme could be worth £200m. However, [...]
Christine Lagarde grovels to Osborne over IMF’s prediction June 9, 2014 IMF BOSS Christine Lagarde yesterday gave a pleading apology to chancellor George Osborne over claims a year ago that his economic policies were “playing with fire.” Since the International Monetary Fund made the claims the economy has recovered rapidly, with unemployment diving and GDP now thought to be back at its pre-crash peak. “I completely [...]