BACK TO THE GREEN HOUSE FOR DE BLONAY February 3, 2010 THE City’s resident “Swiss funds fox”, Guy de Blonay, has barely warmed up his seat after his high-profile return to fund management group Jupiter, but already things are settling comfortably back into their old ways. De Blonay officially took up his new position at the group a week ago, after leaving his first job at [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS January 7, 2010 THE AVENUE REOPENS The mighty D&D London, owners of Coq D’Argent, Pont de la Tour and Skylon, are relaunching St James’s stalwart The Avenue with a new chef, ex-Launceston Place cook Mikko Kataja, on 18 January. The new-look restaurant has gained a private dining room and a new menu that focuses on modern British cooking [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK November 29, 2009 SOMEONE must have been rubbing their hands with glee when this group of friends popped up at the Buddha Bar recently. For not only did the extravagant group splash out on copious amounts of sushi and a range of decadent main courses – including Wagyu beef with Thai butter sauce, sesame tuna and sea bass [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 12, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphFOCUS DIY CHAIN FACES TOUGH CREDIT REVIEWA review of Focus DIY’s financial position will be delivered by Ernst & Young (E&Y) to the group’s lenders this Friday to help them to decide whether to continue backing the DIY retailer. Although the lenders, GMAC and HBOS, have agreed in principle to renew a [...]
ECONOMICS GURU MAGNUS WOWS THE CROWDS ON SPEAKER CIRCUIT November 15, 2009 GEORGE Magnus, senior economic adviser to investment bank UBS, has a fair few accolades to his name – not least the dubious honour of having predicted the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression in an uncannily prophetic research paper. But I hear the dapper 60-year-old has recently earned himself a new title, that [...]
HOORAY FOR THE BAR(S) October 14, 2009 JEFF GALVINWE FOLLOW THE GALVIN BROTHERS AS THEY COUNT DOWN TO THE OPENING OF THEIR NEW CITY RESTAURANT AS we all know, a great bar is the heart of a great restaurant. Not being people who like to take chances, our new restaurant will have three. Perhaps the most exciting is the six-metre long, pewter [...]
Best City spots for a winter warmer November 18, 2009 When there’s a nip in the air, there’s nothing quite like getting your mitts around a nice, hot glass of mulled wine. In these days of online shopping and alternative Queen’s speeches, not a lot remains of the traditional Dickensian Christmas – so when you see a spot of hot wine infused with spices, you [...]
Dismal sales at Diageo as crunch hits October 14, 2009 Diageo, the world’s biggest spirits group, said yesterday its underlying sales fell a sharper-than-expected six per cent in its first quarter, sending its shares lower, while it kept its annual profit target. The maker of Smirnoff vodka, Captain Morgan rum and Guinness beer reported the sales decline for its July-September first quarter, compared to analyst [...]
HENDERSON GROUP TO RID ITSELF OF ITS FALLEN NEW STAR’S LEGACY November 2, 2009 AS FUND management veteran John Duffield gets busy with his new venture, Brompton Asset Management over in Knightsbridge, having completed FSA registration for the name last week, it looks like those lording it over his old employees are preparing to eradicate his legacy for good. Duffield’s second venture, New Star, was taken over by asset [...]
No more BEER FEAR July 29, 2009 I’M sucking a cocktail of coconut and banana beer through two straws, grasping the coconut shell in which it is served with glee. This tastes like a combination of Malibu, suntan lotion and fizz – I feel I’m not meant to like it, but I do. “See, beer is fun!” bellows the buxom Melissa Cole, [...]