London Sports Festival moves from 3×3 basketball success to pickleball at the City of London Corporation’s Guildhall Yard
Hammerson values fall despite belated upturn February 22, 2010 PROPERTY investor Hammerson yesterday reported a nine per cent dip in its portfolio value for 2009 despite strong market performance during the latter half of the year. Results for the Anglo-French company ending 31 December 2009 showed that the value of its portfolio increased by six per cent after 30 June as a result of [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW HAS HAMMERSON PREFORMED THIS YEAR? INTERVIEWS BY EMMA SADOWSKI February 22, 2010 AARON GUY | COLLINS STEWART They were slightly ahead of my expectations. Their UK portfolio went up and it was more than I expected but the French portfolio was in line with what I thought. Their results are more driven by the market than the company itself. TINA COOK | CHARLES STANLEY The outlook statement [...]
Strong Bunzl results down to swine flu February 22, 2010 Distribution firm Bunzl reported better-than-expected full year profits as panic over swine flu sent sales of sanitary equipment soaring. Its profit of £258m was well ahead of analyst consensus of around £237m. It was boosted by a rise in sales of hospital gowns and cleaning equipment as the anti-swine flu message hit home. This was [...]
Hendry slams Brussels for fiddling with hedge funds as Eclectica trebles profits February 22, 2010 OUTSPOKEN hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry has warned smaller companies will flee the EU if Brussels strangles the financial sector by excessively tightening regulation. Hendry told City A.M. Europe was “fiddling” with hedge funds through tools such as the Alternative Investment Fund Managers directive, which would impose strict capital and liquidity requirements. He said: “There [...]
Sports Direct in share swoop February 22, 2010 RETAILER Sports Direct is trying to win a disputed 29 per cent stake in Blacks Leisure and potentially use its muscle to oppose its troubled rival’s rescue plans. Sports Direct’s subsidiary Sportsdirect.com is looking to acquire the shares as well as an 11 per cent holding in JD Sports Fashion from the administrators of collapsed [...]
Shakespeare takes top job at YouGov February 22, 2010 STEPHAN Shakespeare is to take the top job at online pollster YouGov, following chief executive Nadhim Zahawi’s selection as a Conservative parliamentary candidate. Shakespeare, who is currently chief innovation officer at the pollster and a City A.M. columnist, will begin transferring duties immediately. Zahawi will formally hand over the role when the election campaign begins [...]
Hitachi launches £1bn retail fund February 22, 2010 Japanese-backed Hitachi Capital has launched a £1bn fund to prop up the UK retail industry. The firm’s consumer finance division is ready to implement a plan that will invest the cash into the furniture, white goods, jewellery and other retail sectors in order to stimulate growth in sales. Consumer finance divisional managing director Gerald Grimes [...]
BMW hands pension to Deutsche February 22, 2010 Car maker BMW has offloaded £3bn of longevity risk from its UK pension scheme to Deutsche Bank, in the largest longevity insurance transaction conducted to date. Deutsche’s insurance subsidiary Abbey Life carried out the deal, which was structured with pension insurer Paternoster in which Deutsche is a shareholder, in order to cover the pension scheme [...]
Gatwick sale stings as BAA loses £822m February 22, 2010 THE pressured sale of Gatwick airport has left a bitter taste for BAA, which saw its full-year pre-tax loss more than double to £822m yesterday. A £277.3m writedown related to the £1.5bn offloading of Gatwick to Global Infrastructure Partners was a big contributor to the slump at the airport operator. The transaction, which was completed [...]
Eurostar defends itself after fault February 22, 2010 Eurostar defended itself after the breakdown of a Paris-to-London train on Sunday evening in which hundreds of passengers were stranded in darkened carriages for hours. Richard Brown, chief executive of the cross-Channel operator, said: “There was extra water and food already on the train when the rescue [train], which got there pretty quickly, arrived and [...]