Hell’s kitchen for Ramsay’s restaurants July 2, 2009 CELEBRITY chef Gordon Ramsay has found himself in hot water after his UK restaurants suffered a near 90 per cent drop in profits, forcing the foul-mouthed chef to pump his own money into the business. Gordon Ramsay Holdings filed accounts showing that the TV chef and Chris Hutcheson, his father-in-law and business partner, were forced [...]
Failure to take tourism seriously is a big mistake July 2, 2009 WHICH industry is worth £114bn, is responsible for 2.65m British jobs and represents 8.2 per cent of UK GDP? Perhaps surprisingly the answer is the tourism industry. So, given the clear importance of this key economic activity, it is surely worrying to consider that tourism bosses believe their business interests are not taken as seriously [...]
Leslau’s Max Property eyes up its first bargain July 2, 2009 PROPERTY mogul Nick Leslau is eyeing up a bargain acquisition and could buy it through his recently floated Max Property Group. The Aim-listed property company, which became the largest initial public offering in the UK this year after raising £220m, is in discussions to buy a £270m industrial portfolio out of administration. The portfolio comprises [...]
JP Morgan leads bank equity tables July 2, 2009 JP MORGAN was the leading bank in global equity capital markets (ECM) in the first half of 2009, with a 14.6 per cent share of revenues, according to figures released by Dealogic yesterday. The investment bank’s ECM revenues of $1.3bn (£800m) were boosted by its role as joint bookrunner for HSBC’s $19.6bn rights issue. However, [...]
CITY VIEWS: HAVE YOU SEEN EVIDENCE THAT THE “CHAMPAGNE LIFESTYLE” IS MAKING A COMEBACK IN THE CITY? July 2, 2009 GRAHAM GLEN COMMERZBANK“No, I haven’t – and the best example of that is when I look outside my office window in the evening, the bar just outside is never full. People are still relatively downbeat as they are scared about redundancies, and no one’s got a lot of cash to spare.” JOHN BYRNE UBS“Human nature [...]
White paper on consumer debt slated July 2, 2009 THE government’s bid to crack down on the credit card industry to reduce the number of people struggling with unsustainable debts has been criticised by a number of bodies who warn it may restrict lending at a time when people need it the most. The Consumer White Paper aims to clamp down on unsolicited credit [...]
Timis group to raise 63.8m July 2, 2009 AFRICA Minerals Limited, the exploration group chaired by the colourful Frank Timis, has raised £63.8m after a placing of shares with institutional investors. Africa Minerals says it is placing 25.54m shares at a price of 250p each to help it undertake further drilling at its iron ore project in Sierra Leone. “The group has got [...]
Carpathian restructuring deal gets the green light July 2, 2009 PROPERTY investor Carpathian said yesterday it has successfully completed a debt restructuring of €235m (£203m) with German lender Hypo Real Estate. The transaction represents about 56 per cent of the total debt of £417.1m within the group as at 31 December 2008, the company said, stabilising the majority of its portfolio, which was previously under [...]
IMF to begin discussions on its delayed review of China’s economy next week July 2, 2009 THE International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) board will discuss a long-delayed assessment of China’s economy on 8 July after it revised rules on how it assesses the foreign-exchange policies of member countries. Fund spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson said an IMF staff mission had concluded the China economic review on 10 June and it would now go to [...]
Moody’s strips Ireland of its remaining coveted triple-A rating on grim outlook July 2, 2009 MOODY’S yesterday stripped Ireland of its last AAA credit rating and warned Prime Minister Brian Cowen he needed to inflict more fiscal pain on his recession-wracked country or risk a further costly downgrade. Cowen has put Ireland on a five-year austerity diet after a debt-fuelled property binge transformed the former “Celtic Tiger” economy into one [...]