Debenhams in call June 4, 2009 High street retailer Debenhams yesterday announced plans for a £323m fundraising to fulfill chief executive Rob Templeman’s plan to take its debt “off the agenda.” Debenham’s £900m debt mountain has cast a long shadow over the group’s trading ever since private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and CVC Capital Partners floated the business on the [...]
Debenhams raising flops June 23, 2009 HIGHSTREET retailer Debenhams yesterday said its shareholders had taken up just a third of its share offering in a £323m fundraising. The department store chain launched the cash call earlier this month to achieve chief executive Rob Templeman’s aim of taking its £900m debt mountain “off the agenda”. Britain’s second largest high-street retailer said 73,388,851 [...]
Debenhams raising flops June 23, 2009 HIGHSTREET retailer Debenhams yesterday said its shareholders had taken up just a third of its share offering in a £323m fundraising. The department store chain launched the cash call earlier this month to achieve chief executive Rob Templeman’s aim of taking its £900m debt mountain “off the agenda”. Britain’s second largest high-street retailer said 73,388,851 [...]
EU SLAMMED OVER CITY POWER GRAB June 14, 2009 THE EUROPEAN Commission (EC) is being too hasty in its drive for pan-European regulatory reform, a House of Lords committee will warn this week, as fears mount in the City over encroachment from Brussels on the UK financial services sector. The House of Lords sub-committee on economic and financial affairs will say that the pace [...]
Tube strikes are a blot on our global reputation June 14, 2009 MY HEART sank when the International Herald Tribune splashed a large photograph of London commuters struggling to get to work on its front cover. Although the article rightly complimented Londoners on their determination to keep businesses going in the face of crippling tube strikes, it made me angry. This is not the image of London [...]
Tube strikes are a blot on our global reputation June 14, 2009 MY HEART sank when the International Herald Tribune splashed a large photograph of London commuters struggling to get to work on its front cover. Although the article rightly complimented Londoners on their determination to keep businesses going in the face of crippling tube strikes, it made me angry. This is not the image of London [...]
We do more harm than good in ignoring the EU June 7, 2009 Loyal City A.M. readers will know that I am forever trying to drum up interest in the European Union. How many of us realise that 98.8 per cent of the cost of the FSA’s regulations originates in Brussels? The EU is not a quirky continental side show – its decisions are at the core of [...]
City banks need same checks as MPs’ expenses May 31, 2009 Over the last few weeks, I suspect that the revelations about MPs’ expenses have shocked, disappointed and – in some cases – amused you. The tabloids have had a field day, as have the broadsheets, in particular, the Daily Telegraph. The paper has delighted in writing its front-page headlines in font so huge it is [...]
There must be no second thoughts on Crossrail May 17, 2009 TODAY marks a seminal point for the City as the House of Lords discusses the Business Rate Supplements Bill. A bill affecting payments from businesses will clearly always be of huge relevance to the prospects for City firms but this is doubly important because it will determine the future of the Crossrail project. The bill provides the [...]
There must be no second thoughts on Crossrail May 17, 2009 TODAY marks a seminal point for the City as the House of Lords discusses the Business Rate Supplements Bill. A bill affecting payments from businesses will clearly always be of huge relevance to the prospects for City firms but this is doubly important because it will determine the future of the Crossrail project. The bill provides the [...]