Burberry flags currency headwinds as sales jump 12pc January 15, 2014 Burberry has said that, despite a reasonably strong festive season, it expects exchange headwinds to affect its second half results. The high-end fashion store has posted a 12 per cent rise in comparable sales for the last three months of 2013, with retail revenue up 14 per cent to £528m. Nomura analysts had expected sales [...]
Taylor Wimpey’s average UK house price hits £210,000 January 15, 2014 House builder Taylor Wimpey has reported significant improvement in the housing market underpinned by increasing consumer confidence and government interventions to bolster homeownership. Average selling prices on private completions rose by seven per cent to £210,000. Taylor Wimpey's overall average selling price has also increased by 6 per cent to £191,000. The company expects to [...]
Fancy a taste of James’ Britpop? | City A.M. January 15, 2014 CAN YOU remember what 1993 tasted like? Well, if you’re curious, Blur bassist-cum-cheese wizard Alex James has applied to trademark a new drink – called Britpop. The application doesn’t give away any clues as to what the drink will taste like but we can just imagine the Cool Britannia branding now. It’s not the first [...]
The funds that could see big gains this year January 14, 2014 But if you want your investments to do well, avoid 2013’s winners WITH the FTSE 100 nearing an all-time high and the S&P 500 rising by 29.6 per cent, 2013 was a bumper year for equity investors. Those who had backed a fund manager investing in small British companies or Japan – last year’s big [...]
Why 2014 could be the year to invest in Venture Capital Trusts January 14, 2014 ON AVERAGE, investments through Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) have returned 88.6 per cent over the last ten years (with dividends reinvested, assuming an annual 3.5 per cent fee), compared to around 65 per cent for the FTSE All–Share index. VCTs are not for everybody – they are designed to encourage indirect investment in a range [...]
10 problems with the French embassy’s economic analysis January 14, 2014 After a recent editorial from City A.M. editor Allister Heath (France’s failed socialist experiment is turning into a tragedy) the French embassy wrote a piece in response. Here are 10 points on which we disagree over the French economy. 1. Growth prospects The European Commission’s growth forecast for France stands at 0.2% for 2013 and [...]
What happened to the Great Deleveraging? January 14, 2014 Back in the gloomy days of 2010, the phrase bandied around by many US economic forecasters was the appropriately foreboding ‘great deleveraging’. This was an epoch-defining moment when US consumers would stop splurging on nice things like cars and TVs and hunker down to pay back their debts for decades to come. The only problem [...]
The companies that know where you go and what you do January 14, 2014 Over in Toronto, plenty of restaurants and shops are finding things out about their customers – their habits, preferences and movements – reports the Wall Street Journal. Turnstyle Solutions, a new Toronto-based company, has put sensors in around 200 businesses across the downtown are of the city, following signals given out from Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones to [...]
Capita wins £145m congestion charge contract ahead of toll-hike January 14, 2014 Capita, which helped set up the congestion charge for London in 2003, has won back the contract to run the scheme, five years after losing it to IBM. The outsourcing group reckons the contract is worth £145m in revenues over five years – meaning it’s likely to make up just 0.9 per cent of Capita’s annual [...]
City A.M. editorial sparks France debate January 14, 2014 City A.M. editor Allister Heath's article 'France’s failed socialist experiment is turning into a tragedy', published last week, has received a lot of attention – and prompted a deluge of responses. First, the French Embassy wrote a reply, in which the NHS was branded 'ailing' and French infrastrucutre was deemed superior to the UK's. Blogger Guido [...]