Chinese luxury spenders keep UK tills ringing April 29, 2012 BRITAIN’S high street and luxury stores enjoyed record breaking tourist spend in the first quarter of the year driven by a surge in Chinese and south east Asian tourists (SEATs). Global Blue, the tax-free shopping services company, said spend from Chinese shoppers grew by 62 per cent in the three months to March, despite figures [...]
Abu Dhabi ruling family and Li Ka-Shing vie for airports stake April 29, 2012 TWO of the wealthiest investors from Abu Dhabi and China are competing to back Manchester Airports Group’s bid for Stansted Airport. The group, which owns East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports, is looking to raise approximately £1bn to bid for the London airport should BAA place it on the market later this year. Li Ka-Shing, [...]
Boutique hotel firm launches a retail bond April 29, 2012 MR & MRS SMITH, the travel publisher and boutique hotel specialist, has taken a different tack to funding its expansion today by launching its first retail bond, which pays interest to investors in the form of holidays. Husband and wife team James and Tamara Lohan, who founded the business in 2003, are aiming to raise [...]
Glencore float fuels wealth of UK’s super rich April 29, 2012 THE wealth of Britain’s richest people, including a series of investors in Glencore, jumped by nearly five per cent to a record £414bn last year, according to new research. The combined assets of the 1,000 most affluent people rose 4.7 per cent, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, despite the nation’s plunge back into [...]
Recession hits firms’ ability to pay back debts April 29, 2012 MORE companies will fail to pay back loans now Britain is in recession, Ernst and Young economists forecast this morning, warning the corporate loans market will only return to pre-crisis levels in 2016. Lending to firms is expected to fall 6.8 per cent this year to £419bn, following last year’s 6.1 per cent drop as [...]
Labour MPs want investigation into alleged mis-selling to SMEs April 29, 2012 SMALL and medium-sized enterprises may have been ripped off by banks mis-selling financial products, and the government needs to offer more help, Labour shadow ministers argued yesterday. Toby Perkins and Chris Leslie yesterday called on the government to push for a full investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) into interest rate swap products that [...]
Drive for mass vote on exec remuneration April 29, 2012 PENSION savers and ISA holders are today being urged to contact their fund managers and urge them to vote down excessive pay packages. The campaign by FairPensions argues that institutional investors have failed to stop “spiralling pay awards at FTSE 100 companies,” and that activism from savers could be the best way to influence pay [...]
Confidence up despite a new GDP downturn April 29, 2012 CONSUMERS are increasingly confident and feel more secure in their jobs than they did three months ago, according to a study out today, despite the UK officially returning to recession in the last quarter. Deloitte’s consumer tracker shows a fragile picture and only a small improvement on the final quarter of 2011, but does expect [...]
Hotel prices rocket on demand for Jubilee weekends in London April 29, 2012 HOTEL prices are soaring in the run-up to the Jubilee in June, according to a study out today from Santander, with some rising by as much as 223 per cent. The survey found London hotel prices rising by an average of 54 per cent over the Jubilee weekend compared with the same length of stay [...]
Firms fear bribery regulations April 29, 2012 A quarter of middle managers believe the Bribery Act is affecting Britain’s competitiveness, according to research out today from Ernst and Young. Of those worried, 78 per cent cited the effects of losing out to competitors paying bribes and 22 per cent the cost of compliance placed on firms. However, Ernst and Young’s John Smart [...]
