Capital’s hotels attract visitors June 29, 2009 London hoteliers saw occupancy rates increase again in May, but regional hotels continued to struggle, according to monthly figures released today by PKF Hotel Consultancy Services. Occupancy across London’s hotels increased 1.3 per cent year on year in May, from 81.0 per cent last year to 82.1 per cent this year. Room rate did not [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 29, 2009 ExecutionMarcus Ashworth has joined the agency broker to help drive Asian equity sales in its London office. Ashworth joins from Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, where he was a director in the equity derivative and equity research sales team with responsibility for Asia. Prior to that, he held a number of positions at National Australia Bank, Bridport, [...]
Porsche told to end row over its future June 29, 2009 LOWER Saxony, Volkswagen’s second-largest shareholder, again pushed Volkswagen (VW) and Porsche to break a deadlock in merger talks yesterday as the two German carmakers squabbled over a deal. Disagreements among Porsche’s owning families and questions about preconditions for an investment by Middle Eastern Kingdom Qatar have held up progress toward creating a combined company, people [...]
GOLD RUSH AT CENTAMIN June 29, 2009 JOSEF El-Raghy, chief executive of Aim’s largest mining company Centamin Egypt, was celebrating at the weekend after the company poured the first gold bar from its vast Sukari gold project in the Egyptian Eastern Desert. Sukari is the largest gold mine in the world to come on stream this year, with almost 15m ounces of [...]
Hargreaves to top forecasts June 29, 2009 FINANCIAL advisory firm Hargreaves Lansdown said yesterday it expects its full-year results to come in ahead of expectations, driven by high stockbroking dealing volumes and the recent market recovery. The firm said revenues for the 11 months to 31 May were 10 per cent ahead of the same period last year and that full-year pre-tax [...]
More saving for old age despite the recession June 29, 2009 PENSION savings have bucked the downturn this year so far, with more people putting money aside for retirement despite the fact consumers are facing tighter finances and increased redundancies. The Scottish Widows Pension index, which tracks the number of people saving adequately for retirement, has risen from 51 per cent in 2008 to 54 per [...]
PREDICTIONS OF A RECOVERY ARE FAR FROM CERTAIN June 29, 2009 DAVID MORRISONCFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT IN these pages yesterday, CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick warned about unemployment ahead of this Thursday’s Non-Farm Payroll number. He pointed out that many economists dismiss jobs data as an irrelevant, “lagging” indicator. But as he pointed out, when consumers account for 70 per cent of US GDP, then unemployment becomes a [...]
Why small caps can help you profit when big business can’t June 29, 2009 WITH so many blue-chip stocks’ share prices plunging to penny stock levels, it is small wonder that the FTSE 100 companies are no longer the relatively safe trading bets that they once were. And these sprawling multinational companies have found it difficult to become leaner operations in the face of declining global demand. It is [...]
OTHER RESTAURANTS IN LANDMARK VENUES June 29, 2009 SKYLON AT THE ROYAL FESTIVAL HALLThe Southbank Centre’s premiere dining venue mixes stunning views across the river with future-kitsch design and sophisticated continental cooking. Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX,www.skylonrestaurant.co.uk BLUEPRINT AT THE DESIGN MUSEUMOverlooking the river near Tower Bridge – with binoculars provided to tables to cast a closer eye across the City skyline [...]
A City restaurant in the crypt of St Paul’s spells an identity crisis June 29, 2009 THE RESTAURANT AT ST PAUL’SST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, ST PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, LONDON EC4M 8AD (entrance through north-west crypt door)Tel: 020 7248 2469Web www.restaurantatstpauls.co.uk Cost per person without wine: £20 ONCE, stepping down into the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral must have been a spooky experience. All those corpses and bones – even if they do belong [...]
