A STITCH IN TIME July 28, 2009 ADMINISTRATORS for prestigious Mayfair tailor Douglas Hayward – famous for making suits for 1960s stars including Michael Caine and Richard Burton – has secured Mount Street Tailors as a buyer for the long-established business. The sale has safeguarded the jobs of all Hayward employees and preserved the establishment which was set up more than 40-years [...]
SAB Miller to face protest July 28, 2009 Global brewer SAB Miller was yesterday hit with an alert by shareholder advisory group Pirc , urging investors to reject the company’s “excessive” levels of executive pay at this Friday’s annual meeting. Pirc yesterday said bonuses of 500 per cent of base salary were too high, while the minimum performance targets that are attached to [...]
Whitbread dumps more pubs July 28, 2009 Leisure operator Whitbread yesterday placed four more high-quality pubs on the market as part of plans to restructure its estate. The company, which owns the Premier Inn and Brewers Fayre brands, is disposing of the pubs as part of plans to focus on properties where a Premier Inn can be built on the same site. [...]
Google sells AOL stake at a loss July 28, 2009 Google has sold its five per cent stake in AOL back to Time Warner for $283m – a fraction of the $1bn it was worth at the time of purchase, less than four years ago. Time Warner bought back the stake on 8 July, according to a filing by AOL with the US Securities and [...]
Charles Stanley revenues up July 28, 2009 CHARLES Stanley delivered a strong performance in its first quarter, the stockbroker said yesterday, reporting revenues up 2.4 per cent and a 10 per cent increase in funds under management. In a trading statement, the bank said income across its private clients, financial services and securities operations was resilient. Funds under management in the firm’s [...]
Vodafone: T-Mobile UK sale is not imminent July 28, 2009 A Sale of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile UK subsidiary to Vodafone is not imminent, Vodafone said yesterday. At a gloomy annual meeting, overshadowed by economic and performance concerns, Vodafone chairman Sir John Bond said he could not comment further on T-Mobile UK. But he said he did not think the sale of Britain’s second-smallest mobile operator [...]
Airbus owner hit by drop in plane orders July 28, 2009 AIRBUS parent company EADS yesterday said its first half profits had tumbled as orders for its aircraft slumped. The firm said profits in the period were down 23 per cent to €888m (£766m) and warned it might have to pay penalties because of delays to its A400M military aircraft. The company said its net cash [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK DEMAND FOR LUXURY GOODS WILL DECLINE IN THE CURRENT ECONOMIC DOWNTURN? July 28, 2009 DAN BUNTING BANKER“I think that people who can afford them in the first place will continue to buy luxury items. On the other hand, maybe those who are sensible will save. I suppose it is also wage dependent, just as many expenditures are.” MEL DIXON AZTEC“No, I don’t think so. The market can’t withstand luxuries [...]
LVMH loses fizz as wine sales drop July 28, 2009 LVMH, the biggest player in the luxury goods market, yesterday reported a 23 per cent slump in first half profits as the downturn hit discretionary spending. The group, which owns the Dom Perignon brand, was dragged down by its wines and spirits division which suffered a record 41 per cent drop in profits as champagne [...]
Socit Gnrale rogue trader insists bank bosses knew what he was doing July 28, 2009 THE ROGUE trader who accumulated trading positions that caused a €4.9bn (£4.2bn) loss for French bank Société Générale (SocGen) yesterday told a French court his bosses at the bank were aware of his activities. Jerome Kerviel’s lawyers said he never tried to hide the trades from superiors. They added that 300 of his colleagues at [...]