Mike Ashley retains House of Fraser stake as Nanjing Xinjiekou sale goes through September 2, 2014 The sale of department store House of Fraser to Chinese conglomerate Nanjing Xinjiekou has gone through today – with Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley retaining his 11 per cent stake. The deal values the business at around £480m – probably more than it would have valued at, had chairman Don McCarthy gone through with [...]
Date for the diary: George Osborne reveals when he will make his Autumn Statement September 2, 2014 George Osborne today announced he will deliver his Autumn Statement on December 3. Since Osborne took the helm at the Treasury, the Autumn Statment has slowly crept later in the year. While Gordon Brown, who delivered the first Autumn Statement in 1997, preferred to use his as a sort of summary of the state of [...]
Boris vows to fight on for Thames Estuary airport, calling Heathrow third runway “political kryptonite” and Davies Commission “irrelevant” September 2, 2014 London mayor Boris Johnson will continue fighting for a Thames Estuary airport- despite the idea being ruled out Sir Howard Davies' Airports Commission today– calling the organisation “irrelevant” and a third runway at Heathrow “political kryptonite.” In a statement from City Hall, Johnson said he “cannot conceive of any possible scenario in which a government [...]
Bye-bye Boris Island: Economic disruption and environmental hurdles of Thames Estuary airport too huge and time-consuming September 2, 2014 Plans supported by London mayor Boris Johnson to build a new airport on the Thames estuary have been sunk by the Airports Commission. The so-called “Boris Island” airport has been ruled out by a commission led by former London School of Economics director Sir Howard Davies into options for increasing the air capacity in the [...]
Dave Lewis in plea to staff: Tell me how to fix Tesco September 1, 2014 New Tesco boss Dave Lewis parachuted into the supermarket giant yesterday by urging his half a million staff to email suggestions to help fix the troubled retailer. Marking his first day in charge, Lewis – who stepped up to take the reins from departing boss Phil Clarke a month earlier than planned – penned a [...]
Burberry boss Christopher Bailey snaps up Cara Delevingne and Kate Moss September 1, 2014 Burberry has today revealed its first fragrance campaign under chief exec Christopher Bailey after launching My Burberry, inspired by the group’s signature trench coat. The ad campaign is relying on the glamour of two of Britain’s best known models, Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne, as well as social media technology to draw in savvy luxury [...]
Blow for Boris as island airport is rejected September 1, 2014 LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson was dealt a blow last night after his plan for an island airport in east London was rejected by the Airports Commission. The Mayor’s transport advisor Daniel Moylan called the decision not to back the scheme, dubbed Boris Island, “shortsighted” but said the campaign to build a four-runway hub in the [...]
Neil Woodford dumps entire HSBC holding September 1, 2014 Neil Woodford, one of the City’s top performing fund managers, has sold his entire stake in HSBC just 16 months after buying into the group. Woodford sold his holding due to the rising number of fines HSBC faced, a trend he dubbed fine inflation. He bought the shares in May 2013. HSBC was fined $1.9bn [...]
Putin has won in Ukraine – but the West can still salvage the long game September 1, 2014 There’s only one way to make a fortune, and that’s to down the fellow who’s up against you." W Somerset Maugham, on poker ONE OF the many wonderful traditions at St Andrews University is that, if a student did well, they did not have to sit final exams until their last year. As a result, [...]
“Dear colleagues”: Dave Lewis’ letter to Tesco staff on his first day as chief executive September 1, 2014 On his first day at Tesco, new chief executive Dave Lewis has written a letter to staff outlining his initial plans for the supermarket. Lewis introduced himself to Tesco’s more than half-a-million staff, telling them he would be doing “a lot of listening,” to staff, customers, shareholders and investment analysts, and the most important thing [...]