Savoy under pressure to polish sales to avoid breaching loans October 13, 2013 THE OWNERS of the Savoy Hotel have warned that it could be at risk of breaching loan covenants if trading does not improve. The five-star hotel on the Strand, which is owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia and Lloyds Banking Group, made a £53.5m pre-tax loss in 2012 compared with £49.6m in [...]
French National Front claims by-election win October 13, 2013 FRANCE’S National Front (FN) won by a wide margin in a local by-election in southeast France yesterday, the latest sign the anti-immigrant party is benefiting from discontent with ruling Socialists and mainstream opposition conservatives. Even though the National Front already has an established presence in the region, the victory in the canton of Brignoles near [...]
WH Smith shuts its website to remove pornographic ebooks October 13, 2013 WH SMITH shut down its website yesterday after reports it was selling pornographic ebooks. More than 60 pornographic titles – mostly self-published – were available on the WH Smith site, as well as through Amazon, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble, according to the Mail on Sunday. In a statement yesterday, WH Smith said it had [...]
Sausage maker weighs link-up with Peperami October 13, 2013 KERRY Group, owner of Wall’s sausages, is in the running to gobble up iconic meaty snack Peperami after owner Unilever put the brand on the block. Peperami, famed for its “it’s a bit of an animal” slogan, was launched in 1982 in the UK and is sold in Germany as BiFi.
Grafton cancels Irish listing for London market October 13, 2013 IRISH builders merchant Grafton is to scrap its Dublin listing tomorrow and move to the London market instead as it looks to tap into growing investor appetite driven by improvements in the housing sector and the wider construction market. The group, which currently has a secondary listing in London, expects to join the ranks of [...]
Top hedge fund Moore Europe Capital rises despite Coffey exit October 13, 2013 THE UK division of hedge fund Moore Capital recorded higher profits last year after a steep rise in revenues, newly filed accounts reveal. Moore Europe Capital Management, which was home to star trader Greg Coffey until his retirement last October, said members’ profits rose to £32.2m from £31.7m a year earlier. Revenues rose 23 per [...]
Profits turn sour for royal wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd October 13, 2013 BERRY Bros & Rudd’s annual results, to be released this week, are expected to show that Britain’s oldest wine merchant has slipped into the red as it battles to turn itself around. The 314-year-old family-owned company, which is more that three years into a five-year strategic overhaul of the business, is set to report a [...]
£90m windfall for Facebook’s 119 London staff October 13, 2013 FACEBOOK’S London-based employees received shares worth almost £90m in bonuses last year. UK sales are estimated to account for around £223m of the social network’s turnover, however due to revenues being routed via Facebook’s Dublin office, the exact figure is unknown. Facebook’s European chief Joanna Shields is believed to have pocketed more than £10m of [...]
Bankers set to take just $32m in fees on Twitter’s $1bn float October 13, 2013 TWITTER has negotiated some of the lowest bankers’ fees for a public float of its size, according to a report from Bloomberg. The social network is expected to pay a fee of about 3.25 per cent on the $1bn (£626.9m) it is seeking to raise from its public offering (IPO). While the fees are not [...]
UK spending on research drops behind China October 13, 2013 CHINA is spending six times more on the iterative development phase of innovation than the UK – $500m (£313m) a day – according to a report out today by innovation charity Nesta. The development phase of innovation refers to China’s ability to take existing knowledge to improve materials, products and services. “China now produces 13 [...]
