BILL OF THE WEEK January 17, 2010 MAYFAIR Japanese restaurant Sumosan was the dinner venue of choice for this group on Thursday evening last week. Amazingly for a £1298.12 bill, most of this ticket was racked up by food and not drink – after four bottles of Insoglio wine and a number of cocktails, our diners forgot about the alcohol and concentrated [...]
UK needs foreign lift January 17, 2010 THE UK economy needs to look overseas for a way out of recession, according to a new report by Ernst & Young. The latest E&Y Item Club forecast says that after years of relying of domestic spending and borrowing, the economy now needs to focus on saving and exporting. E&Y chief economic advisor Professor Peter [...]
Top banks subpoenaed by regulator January 17, 2010 A LIST of top international banks has been subpoenaed by US regulators. Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Barclays Capital are all believed to have received subpoenas last month. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants to question them about the sale and marketing of synthetic collateralised debt obligations [...]
Morrisons to trump its retail rivals January 17, 2010 WM MORRISON supermarkets is expected to announce outstanding trading results this week as it emerges from the Christmas period outperforming its rivals. Like-for-like sales of the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket chain are predicted to have improved seven per cent on the previous year, adding to the impressive turnaround overseen by soon-to-depart chief executive Marc Bolland. Bolland [...]
Solar company Engyco to float in London January 17, 2010 NEWLY founded solar company Engyco has appointed Numis Securities and Ambrian Partners to advise on a flotation on the London stock market. It is thought that Engyco wants to raise up to €1bn (£885m) to invest in solar parks across Europe. It says on its website that it plans to buy €3bn of assets in [...]
Eurostar apologises again January 17, 2010 EUROSTAR has set out plans to prevent a repeat of December’s travel chaos, which could cost the company £10m if all 100,000 affected travellers claim compensation. Chief executive Richard Brown has written to customers to assure them that safety and customer service have already been improved, ahead of the results of an independent inquiry due [...]
London house sales rise as stock hits low January 17, 2010 HOUSE prices in London are leading the country higher, according to the latest monthly house price index compiled by Rightmove, the property website. The average price of housing in greater London has risen 2.5 per cent over the past month to £407,731, comparing favourably with a national increase of 0.4 per cent to £222,261. Two [...]
Bankers must highlight skills to rebuild trust January 17, 2010 When people talk about the UK financial services industry they inevitably associate it with the Square Mile. But in fact the industry is spread across the entire country. As Lord Mayor, I take an active role in highlighting the sector’s vital contribution to the broader economy both in London and beyond. My visit to Manchester [...]
Sky vows to fight plans to force it to wholesale premium content to rivals January 17, 2010 SKY yesterday vowed to fight “through every avenue possible” attempts to force it to sell its premium channels to rivals at regulated prices. Media regulator Ofcom is meeting tomorrow to discuss plans to make Sky wholesale its movies and sports channels to competitors like Virgin and BT Vision. It will give a final decision in [...]
Bidders consider making joint offer for GM’s Saab January 17, 2010 LUXEMBOURG investment firm Genii Capital and Dutch sports-car maker Spyker were considering a joint bid for Saab, after weeks of bidding separately for the loss-making car manufacturer. Parent company General Motors began to liquidate the Swedish company last week, saying previous bids were not strong enough to finance Saab in the long term. This is [...]