West End’s strong performance January 27, 2010 London’s West End theatres enjoyed a record year in 2009, shaking off the recession and earning more than £500m for the first time, figures showed yesterday. Attendances reached 14.3m last year, a rise of 5.5 per cent on 2008, and overall box office revenue for central London’s theatreland was £505m, a 7.6 per cent increase.
Big freeze and VAT hike hit January sales January 27, 2010 RETAILERS suffered in Britain’s big freeze as shoppers deserted the high street at the start of the year. Figures from the CBI laid bare the grim news for shops with poor weather and the end of the VAT reduction taking their toll in January. The monthly survey found that 36 per cent of retailers saw [...]
WH Smith sales dive January 26, 2010 WH Smith have reported a 4 per cent drop in like-for-like sales as customers bought fewer books. The figures for the 21 weeks to last weekend showed that the retailer’s High street stores saw a fall of 5 per cent while its travel-based outlets dipped by two per cent. WH Smith has been concentrating on [...]
Pets at Home sold in £995m deal January 26, 2010 PRIVATE equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) is buying British retailer Pets at Home in a deal worth £955m. KKR, whose retail investments include health and beauty group Alliance Boots and toys chain Toys’R’Us, saw off rival bids from Apax, Bain and TPG. Earlier this month Pets at Home posted a 6.7 per cent rise [...]
Greene King ‘weathering well’ January 26, 2010 GREENE King (GNK) may have managed to weather the worst of January’s snow storms, but the integrated pub and brewery giant expects the rest of 2010 to prove even tougher. During the 38 weeks ending 24 January 2010, the Suffolk based pub chain reported a 4.3 per cent growth in sales, despite a three week [...]
Doubts grow over QE end January 26, 2010 THE lower than expected economic growth figure may delay the ending of Quantitative Easing (QE), according to Citi economist Michael Saunders. “Before these data, we judged that there was little chance that QE would be extended at next week’s MPC meeting. “These data introduce considerable uncertainty, but on balance we still believe that the MPC [...]
British economy faces years of pain January 26, 2010 “THE UK is a must to avoid. Its gilts are resting on a bed of nitroglycerine.” So says Pimco’s Bill Gross – and given yesterday’s pathetic 0.1 per cent fourth quarter growth, he is clearly right. It is good news that we are out of recession at last. But the last year and a half [...]
Sterling falls as market shows disappointment January 26, 2010 THE fragility of the UK’s recovery sent sterling lower yesterday, while gilt prices rose. The pound fell 0.6 per cent to $1.615 by the close of business, also slipping 0.2 per cent against the euro and 1.4 per cent versus the yen. Benchmark 10-year gilts rose 0.17 per cent in price and saw their yields [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 26, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES ATHENS INVITES BEIJING TO BUY BONDS Greece is wooing China to buy up to €25bn of government bonds, a move that underlines Beijing’s growing financial power, as Athens struggles to fund soaring public debt. Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, has been promoting a Greek bond sale to Beijing and the State Administration [...]
Tories blame Labour for weak growth January 26, 2010 OPPOSITION parties hit out at the government’s handling of the economy yesterday, after Britain’s GDP grew at an anaemic 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter – much less than economists had expected. Chancellor Alistair Darling said that the country should be “confident but cautious” after exiting its longest recession on record, adding that he [...]