JAMIE OLIVER SLICING INTO NORTH AMERICAN MARKET January 15, 2012 CELEBRITY chef Jamie Oliver is planning to expand his Jamie’s Italian restaurant chain into the US and Canada. The move follows a year of solid growth for the chain in the UK, with profits for the year to January of £4.65m, up from £1.65m the previous year. Oliver has formed a new company, Jamie’s Italian [...]
Eurozone crisis still as muddled after two years January 15, 2012 TWO years into the Eurozone crisis and still no more clarity and so many moving parts. Almost everyone we speak to seems to think the euro/dollar exchange rate is headed down to 1.20, but for all sorts of different reasons. Let’s start with the European Central Bank’s (ECB) long term refinancing operation (LTRO) last month. [...]
EZW mulling sale of Gazeley January 15, 2012 Economic Zones World (EZW), a unit of Dubai World, is considering the sale of its UK-based warehouse property developer Gazeley, as it looks to repay some of its debt of over $2bn (£1.3bn) this year, banking sources said. Gazeley is one of the four businesses held by EZW, which operates technology, logistics and industrial parks [...]
Everything Everywhere could thrash rivals in bringing 4G to British shores January 15, 2012 ORANGE and T-Mobile customers could be the first to welcome the next generation of mobile network to the UK, despite Ofcom’s recent refusal to guarantee the service providers a section of the new 4G airwaves. Everything Everywhere, the combined Orange and T-Mobile networks, has applied to communications regulator Ofcom for permission to upgrade its current [...]
Olympic Media Buzz LONDON 2012 PARTNERS January 15, 2012 IN ASSOCIATION with Repskan.com, the media monitoring and analytics platform, City A.M. is measuring the relative Olympic media buzz around the partners for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, week by week. The leaderboard, right, reflects their ranking over the past week, in this case from Wednesday 4 January to Wednesday 11 January. Cadbury [...]
Meccano-set towers: how London offices are evolving January 15, 2012 JE ne regrette rien. That is the message from Chris Grigg when we discuss his decision to quit banking in 2008 to take the reins at commercial property giant British Land. At the time, many in the City thought the former head of Barclays’ commercial bank was simply quitting one troubled industry for another; his [...]
Gulf markets hit by Eurozone rate cuts January 15, 2012 DUBAI’S benchmark stock index fell to the lowest level in more than seven years after France and Austria were stripped of top credit ratings. Trading in other Gulf markets also suffered yesterday after S&P also downgraded Italy, Spain and Portugal. Dubai’s benchmark slumped dipped 1 per cent and Abu Dhabi’s benchmark declined 0.7 per cent [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 15, 2012 TED BAKER Numis rates the fashion retailer as a “hold” with a target price of 700p, after a strong performance from the brand over Christmas trading. The broker says this was achieved despite no significant pre-Christmas discounting, but will not be chasing the stock due to a share price of 15x earnings. EROS INTERNATIONAL Investec [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 15, 2012 Grosvenor Group Former Morgan Stanley managing director Owen Thomas has joined the board of the global property group Grosvenor as a non-executive director. Thomas was most recently CEO of Morgan Stanley’s Asian operation, chairman of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, chairman of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities and a member of the bank’s management committee. [...]
WALL STREET WEEK AHEAD January 15, 2012 US STOCK investors will return to a tug of war between signs of domestic strength and overseas concerns this week as a batch of critical earnings reports look to add credence to the idea the economy is improving, while credit rating downgrades in Europe will keep that region’s difficulties in view. Bank stocks will probably [...]
