Wagner’s Tesco tie-up deal July 19, 2009 Dan Wagner, the internet entrepreneur, is mulling over a return to the stock market after his online business venture, Venda, signed a tie-up with Tesco online. Wagner has signed a new contract to power Tesco’s fashion website when it goes live this autumn. It is believed that Goldman Sachs has been appointed to advise on [...]
Tennents sale quenches thirst July 19, 2009 Scotland’s best-selling lager, Tennents, has been touted for sale by its parent company Anheuser-Busch Inbev. Investment bank Lazard has been appointed to seek out potential buyers for the business, which controls 60 per cent of the Scottish drinking market. Industry sources have put a €100m (£86m) price tag on Tennents.
Hilton’s new sporting ambitions July 19, 2009 Hilton, the up-market hotel chain, is set to defy the gloom by opening a string of new properties, including plans to open a venue at the stadium of the MK Dons, in Milton Keynes. As part of the deal, under its Doubletree vehicle, Hilton will also become the football team’s shirt sponsor. Other new venues [...]
London house asking prices turn positive July 19, 2009 AVERAGE asking prices for properties in London are higher now than they were a year ago, while the yearly decline for England and Wales was trimmed to 3.1 per cent, according to property website Rightmove. Rightmove figures show that the average asking price for a UK house rose by 0.6 per cent in July on [...]
Boardroom bonuses remain attainable July 19, 2009 BRITISH board members are still receiving bonuses worth a third of their salaries, despite the general trend for pay to be frozen. According to the latest Executive Compensation Review survey by employment research firm Incomes Data Services, the amount board directors receive in bonuses fell by 25 per cent on 2008 when they could expect [...]
PartyGaming buys rival July 19, 2009 PARTYGAMING yesterday confirmed that it has clinched a £100m deal for the owner of bingo website foxybingo.com, Cashcade. Partygaming is believed to be paying £75m upfront for Cashcade, with £25m to be paid at a later date depending on the group’s performance this year and in 2010. In April Partygaming reached an agreement with US [...]
ECONOMIST VIEWS: WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK FOR THE UK HOUSING MARKET? July 19, 2009 SEEMA SHAH CAPITAL ECONOMICSIn our view there are more falls to come, although recent falls have been slower than seen previously. The problem is that just by looking at a couple of months rise you forget how far they have fallen from the peak. The outlook is slightly more positive than it was but we [...]
SEEING IS BELIEVING AS 6,500 RUNNERS HIT THE CITY OF LONDON July 16, 2009 THE CITY was out in force last night for the fifth annual Standard Chartered Great City Run, and The Capitalist was impressed that as many as 6,500 of you tackled the five kilometre race in the name of the official charity, Seeing is Believing (SiB). The square mile closed to traffic so that teams from [...]
JP MORGAN REPORTS BUMPER EARNINGS July 16, 2009 JP MORGAN Chase, the investment banking giant, said earnings soared 36 per cent in the second-quarter, boosting hopes of a recession-defying earnings season for Wall Street. The bank unveiled bumper revenues yesterday of $27.7bn (£16.9bn) in the three months to the end of June, thanks in part to strong investment banking revenues. Earnings rose to [...]
US LENDER CIT TEETERS ON THE BRINK July 16, 2009 CIT Group, the US bank that lends to a million small- and medium-sized businesses, was on the brink of collapse last night after President Obama’s administration refused to come up with an emergency bailout. Shares of the 101-year old firm slid as much as 80 per cent to 31 cents amid fears that CIT would [...]