Qatari royals acquire Valentino July 12, 2012 Italian fashion house Valentino has been snapped up by the Qatari royal family for €700m (£552m), the latest purchase of a top European luxury brand by an emerging market investor. The haute couture label loved by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Audrey Hepburn said yesterday that Mayhoola for Investments S.P.C, an investment vehicle backed by a [...]
Betaworks to buy Digg for $500k July 12, 2012 New York technology development firm Betaworks is buying news-sharing website Digg for $500,000. Digg, an early social media company, was at one time valued at $164m. As of May, Digg was recorded as having an audience of more than 7m a month.
US job market upturn illusory warn analysts July 12, 2012 NEW JOBLESS claims dipped to a four-year low last week in the US, according to yesterday’s estimates from the Department of Labor. Dropping 24,000 in the week ending 30 June, initial claims last week reached just 350,000, adjusted for seasonal trends. But analysts warned the seasonal adjustment applied to the data disguised a jump of [...]
Household wealth rises despite recession but pensions neglected July 12, 2012 BRITONS’ household wealth continued to grow between 2006-08 and 2008-10, but official figures revealed yesterday that nearly two thirds of people are failing to put any money into a private pension. Total household wealth – which includes property wealth, funds from pensions, and other financial assets – grew by 12.9 per cent to £10.3 trillion [...]
House prices stall in June but annual picture remains solid July 12, 2012 AFTER six months of growth, house prices inched down in June, according to a report released today by LSL Property Services. The average UK house price crept down to £224,102, a 0.1 per cent fall on the month, said LSL. On an annualised basis, however house prices were up three per cent. “Despite the recession [...]
CBI: State should act now to unlock 215,000 building jobs July 12, 2012 THE CONSTRUCTION sector is ideally placed to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the short run, leading to stronger economic growth in the long term, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) claimed yesterday. But for the potential 215,000 jobs to be created, the government needs to push local authorities and highways bodies to bring [...]
Brits cut back on holidays but tourism to UK hits record high July 12, 2012 RECORD numbers of tourists landed in the UK in the 12 months to May, official data showed yesterday. Yet the number of Britons holidaying abroad fell compared to the previous year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed. Brits’ holiday visits in the year to May totalled 35.9m, down three per cent on the previous [...]
Bank of Japan rejects easing as it projects healthy GDP growth July 12, 2012 JAPAN’S economy is growing relatively strongly and does not need any help from a looser monetary policy, its central bank announced yesterday, marking a stark contrast with the downbeat tone of other major central banks. In the week after the European Central Bank and Bank of England loosened policy to combat the sovereign debt crisis [...]
Leisure travel lifts Eurostar as firms stay put July 12, 2012 TOURISTS are flocking to the Chunnel for their European trips, but hard-up business travellers have cut back on journeys, Eurostar said yesterday. The train operator said passenger numbers rose two per cent to 4.8m in the first half of the year, bolstered by robust growth in leisure travel. The number of passengers originating from outside [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 12, 2012 Ignis Asset Management Jeremy Soutter has been appointed global head of product development at the asset management firm. He will join on 1 August from Aviva Investors, where he has held a similar position for 13 years. Soutter has worked in asset management since the early 1980s, notably at Gartmore Fund Management, Lloyds Bank and [...]
