Summer sales data to reveal retail outlook September 6, 2009 RETAILERS are set to provide fresh evidence of consumer confidence this week in a series of market updates. In a bid to revive the ailing retail sector the West End is launching High Street Fashion Week today in an effort to attract a predicted 2.4m shoppers to Oxford Street. ABF Foods, Primark’s owner, will today [...]
Aquascutum lures bid from Jaegar veteran September 6, 2009 JAEGER fashion chain chairman Harold Tillman is considering a bid for 158-year-old fashion brand Aquascutum. The tailoring company, famous for its trench coats, would likely fetch less than the £100m its current owners – the Japanese clothing manufacturer Renown – paid for it in 1990. Alan Lewis, the owner of clothing brand Crombie, is also [...]
BAE given just weeks to file a guilty plea September 6, 2009 DEFENCE giant BAE Systems has until the end of the month to plead guilty to international bribery allegations or face a lengthy and damaging criminal trial, industry sources have said. It is understood that the allegations, part of a six-year Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation, involve contracts worth over £2.5bn for the sale of equipment [...]
Alchemy plays down Moulton damage September 6, 2009 ALCHEMY Partners is holding frantic talks with its investors to persuade them to stay on as clients at the firm, after the spectacular resignation of its managing partner Jon Moulton last week. The private equity firm is telling investors that Moulton, the investment guru who founded it in 1997 but slammed it in a scathing [...]
WORKAHOLIC MYNERS IS FORCED TO CALL TIME ON HIS GREAT LOVE September 6, 2009 MIXING one’s other half with one’s work has always been a risky affair, largely because loved ones have a tendency to be prone to letting things slip – and The Capitalist imagines that City minister Lord Myners won’t be hugely enamoured to read his wife Alison’s upcoming interview with Tatler magazine, which hits newsstands on [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK September 6, 2009 IT’S over to Westminster for this week’s bill, which came from a little Italian restaurant, Quirinale, tucked away beside the Institute of Economic Affairs and beloved of Parliamentary types wanting to keep a low profile. Our five diners attacked their meal with gusto, eating beef carpaccio, bresaola, pork saltimbocca, salmon, risotto and tiramisu, and washing [...]
Sandy Chen mulls opening his own bank September 6, 2009 SANDY Chen, one of the City’s most respected banking analysts, is the latest financier to consider upping competition in the Square Mile by setting up his own bank. Panmure Gordon analyst Chen is understood to be in conversations with potential investors for the bank, which has yet to be named, and could raise around £100m [...]
Merlin spells out future IPO on FTSE100 September 6, 2009 MADAME Tussauds owner Merlin Entertainment Group is in the last stages of planning a £2bn main market listing. JP Morgan Cazenove, Deutsche Bank, BNP Parabis, Citi and Merrill Lynch are all believed to be vying for the position of bookrunner. The string of banks are now just waiting for a decision by Merlin and its [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS September 6, 2009 AGA RANGEMASTER GROUPNoble initiated coverage of Aga with a “positive” rating, and a target price of 162p, corresponding to a 19 per cent upside. The broker said that, as Aga’s brands find deeper and broader resonance amongst the well-heeled in the UK, Europe and North America, its current commodity-like rating will appear increasingly undeserved. Noble [...]
LSE cash calls boosted by rising market September 6, 2009 LEVELS of secondary fundraising on the London Stock Exchange have soared by 80 per cent over the year so far as companies scramble to take advantage of the upturn in market sentiment to raise cash. Cash calls on the LSE’s main market raised £56.2bn between January and August this year, a substantial increase on the [...]
