GLORY DAYS FOR ROYAL ASCOT CITY RACING SET June 16, 2009 IT WAS smiles all round for the property world’s keenest racegoers yesterday, as a group of City real estate heavyweights toasted a win (and a hefty £167,472 prize pot) for their horse Paco Boy in the Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot. I hear Parkwood Property Investments partner Derek Lucie-Smith, one of the owners, was in [...]
GLORY DAYS FOR ROYAL ASCOT CITY RACING SET June 16, 2009 IT WAS smiles all round for the property world’s keenest racegoers yesterday, as a group of City real estate heavyweights toasted a win (and a hefty £167,472 prize pot) for their horse Paco Boy in the Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot. I hear Parkwood Property Investments partner Derek Lucie-Smith, one of the owners, was in [...]
Small car, big noise June 2, 2009 WHEN I covered the Geneva Motor Show back in early March, I said I wasn’t a fan of the shape of the new Polo. Now in its fifth generation, it looks like a new Golf from the front but with the Lupo attached to the rear. I just don’t get it. I want to get [...]
Small car, big noise June 2, 2009 WHEN I covered the Geneva Motor Show back in early March, I said I wasn’t a fan of the shape of the new Polo. Now in its fifth generation, it looks like a new Golf from the front but with the Lupo attached to the rear. I just don’t get it. I want to get [...]
Market forces should be let loose on GM May 28, 2009 IT is a sign of our troubled and confused times that the US government will end up owning a majority stake in General Motors (GM), the ailing car giant that is heading into bankruptcy. It remains unclear what exactly will happen to Vauxhall, the UK division of Germany’s GM-owned Opel, but it seems likely it [...]
Defender of the realm June 9, 2009 THE FACTS: Land RoverDefender 90 XSStation Wagon6-speed manual PRICE (MODELTESTED): £26,8150-62MPH: Figuresnot availableTOP SPEED: Figuresnot availableMPG COMBINED/CO2: 28.3/266g/km A FEW years ago I was in mid-Wales for a weekend of tyre-testing, speed and lessons in the laws of physics with Welsh rally driver Mark Higgins and his team at the Forest Experience School. Having been [...]
New dawn at Chrysler and GM in the US June 1, 2009 CAR giant General Motors (GM) finally filed for Chapter 11 yesterday, as President Barack Obama said his government’s plan for the carmaker was viable and would see the business rise out of bankruptcy quickly. When GM emerges from the largest-ever bankruptcy filing in US manufacturing history, the debt-heavy company will be majority owned by the [...]
Dixon the risk-taker changes his tactics to thrive in the recession May 19, 2009 You could almost be mistaken for thinking Mark Dixon, the founder and chief executive of office space provider Regus, is enjoying this recession. Perhaps it is because Regus’ share price has bounced 50 per cent since March. What is clear is that the short, fair-haired, serial entrepreneur who is sitting in one of his flagship [...]
The devil’s in the detail: the trials and tribulations of a property sage June 3, 2009 THERE comes a time in your life when you can draw a line and say: ‘I’ve done a lot of things in my life’, barks Gerald Ronson, thumping a gnarled fist on the table for emphasis. He’s not wrong. Now the undisputed Sage of Property, Ronson, 70, has spent the past half a century constructing [...]
Ford in the red with £213m losses October 21, 2005 Ford fell into the red as losses in its key North American division increased and sales of high-margin sport utility vehicles dropped. The world’s third largest automaker, which is facing a deepening financial crisis, reported its third quarter results yesterday. It announced a $377m (£213m) pre-tax loss compared to a $718m (£406m) profit the previous [...]