Bottom Line: Bolland must use his breathing space wisely April 10, 2014 MARKS & Spencer’s boss Marc Bolland usually looks pretty pleased with himself, but yesterday his proud smile was somewhat justified. By posting the retailer’s best clothing performance in three years – based on an improvement in its crucial womenswear lines – Bolland has proved the critics wrong, pulling something that looks like the start of [...]
Bolland’s bought more time, but what does M&S need now? April 10, 2014 The trading update from high street staple Marks & Spencer has been described by stockbroker Shore Capital as “frankly, quite mellow”. The encouraging figure was for clothing sales, which rose 1.3 per cent and 0.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis in the first quarter of 2014. The group reported sales up 1.9 per cent, [...]
M&S sees clothes sales rise but Bolland still cautious April 10, 2014 A glimmer of hope for high street store Marks & Spencer. The retailer’s reported that clothing sales rose 1.3 per cent in the first part of 2014, up 0.6 per cent like-for-like. General merchandise saw group sales up a modest 0.2 per cent in the 13 weeks to the end of March, but still declining [...]
The One to Watch: Rising star Sajid Javid joins the cabinet April 9, 2014 SAJID Javid has been named as the new culture secretary. He is the first-ever Asian man to join the UK cabinet, and replaces Maria Miller, who resigned yesterday over public anger at her expenses. The son of a bus driver, and a former managing director at Deutsche Bank, Javid is a rising Tory star. First [...]
Billionaire Mike Ashley offloads a £218m stake in Sports Direct April 7, 2014 SPORTS Direct founder Mike Ashley is to sell £218m of his majority stake in the retailer in the latest twist in a series of events that saw him snap up a stake in House of Fraser just days ago. Ashley is selling up to 25m shares in Sports Direct through an accelerated bookbuilding run by [...]
He’s back: Star stockpicker Neil Woodford returns to City in spectacular style April 3, 2014 THE MOST celebrated stock market guru in Britain made a bold step back into the fray yesterday after clinching a deal to manage more than £3.5bn of cash from one of the country’s biggest wealth managers. Money manager Neil Woodford, whose investment prowess would have turned £1,000 of cash in 1990 into £23,265 today, has [...]
FCA boss Wheatley says he won’t quit over insurance blunder April 1, 2014 Martin Wheatley is not intending to step down as chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority after last week’s embarrassing episode when it bungled an announcement on a new insurance probe. The regulator is investigating the fees and charges faced by savers with policies dating back forty years. The announcement saw shares in insurers plummet [...]
Hollande hires Blairite PM in French reshuffle March 31, 2014 FRENCH President Francois Hollande reshuffled his government last night in the wake of disastrous local elections which saw the rise of the far right National Front. In a major U-turn the Socialist leader veered away from the left wing of his party, appointing a Blairite moderniser as his new Prime Minister. Manuel Valls had been [...]
Heathrow and Boris clash over airport’s future March 31, 2014 HEATHROW has been drawn into a political dogfight over its role as a magnet for business, with the Mayor of London claiming a new town and technology hub on the site of the airport could lift the city’s economy. Meanwhile, Heathrow has argued that firms based nearby would downsize rather than adapt to a new [...]
Markets jump on Yellen’s jobs speech March 31, 2014 Chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, has been speaking in Chicago on the health of the US economy and what the Fed's doing to promote a stronger jobs market. For many Americans, she said, “the recovery still feels like a recession” and “it also looks that way in some economic statistics”. The US economy [...]