Thousands queue for last peek inside Battersea Power Station September 22, 2013 THOUSANDS queued this weekend to get a last glimpse of the iconic Battersea Power Station before it undergoes an £8bn redevelopment. The Art Deco landmark was one of 700 sites being opened up to visitors as part of the Open House project. Police helped manage the large crowd, allowing 18,000 people to look inside the [...]
Patten calls for BBC’s senior staff to be cut September 22, 2013 CHRIS Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, yesterday called for a reduction in the number of BBC senior managers by half over the next two years. In a speech at the Prix Italia broadcasting awards in Turin last night, Patten called for the nearly 600 senior managers currently employed to be reduced to less than [...]
Confidence lifts value of market for UK flotations September 22, 2013 THE value of UK initial public offerings (IPOs) has soared to $7.16bn (£4.47bn) this year – more than eight times the amount raised by this time last year, according to Dealogic data. A list of 39 flotations this year includes monster deals such as the insurance company esure, with a deal value of more than [...]
Topshop to launch 28 shops in US to kick off 150-store growth September 22, 2013 ARCADIA GROUP plans to open 28 Topshop stores in the US in the next month as part of a global expansion plan for 150 new franchise stores around the world over the next year. Owner Sir Philip Green said he had agreed to expand Topshop and Topman’s tie-up with US department store Nordstrom from 14 [...]
LoveFilm falls into the red due to investment September 22, 2013 ONLINE film and DVD service LoveFilm posted a loss of £21.2m in 2012, falling into the red due to an increase in costs. The company, which was acquired by US online retail giant Amazon in 2010, made a profit of £14m in 2011. But last year its earnings were hit by the cost of interest [...]
Wanda billionaire unveils plan for Chinese motion picture city September 22, 2013 CHINA’S richest man, property developer Wang Jianlin, raised the curtain on a planned 50bn yuan (£5.11bn) “motion-picture city” which he described as the biggest-ever single investment in the movie and television industry. Property developer Wang Jianlin, 58, founder of Dalian Wanda Group, was surrounded by Hollywood stars John Travolta, Nicole Kidman and Catherine Zeta-Jones yesterday [...]
Fiat assumes control of diesel engine maker after buying out GM September 22, 2013 THE Italian carmaker Fiat is planning to take full control of the diesel engine manufacturer VM Motori by buying out the half of the company owned by joint venture partner General Motors, Fiat said yesterday. VM Motori, based in the northern Italian city of Cento, is currently a 50:50 joint venture between Fiat and GM. [...]
Blackberry pulls BBM app launch September 22, 2013 BLACKBERRY suffered yet another setback over the weekend with the launch of its mobile messaging platform BBM on rival iOS and Android platforms. The app was unceremoniously pulled from the respective online stores just hours after it launched yesterday morning. The company said 1.1m users had downloaded the app in the hours after it launched, [...]
Bottom Line: Bailing out a sinking ship September 22, 2013 BLACKBERRY’S turnaround is seeming less and less likely. Hardly a day passes without news of mounting losses or staff cuts at the struggling Canadian firm. Gil Amelio, Apple’s chief executive during the company’s struggles in the early 90s, once said, “Apple is like a ship with a hole in the bottom leaking water, and my [...]
Rents in London rise to nearly £1,500 as new supply declines September 22, 2013 THE AVERAGE cost of renting in London is pushing closer to £1,500 per month, as property prices climb across the UK. The average monthly rent in London is now £1,465, according to Sequence, the property group. Based on the speed of rises currently, rents will soon push above £1,500 per month. Between July and August, [...]
