Who do you trust more: Boris Johnson or Ken Livingstone? April 24, 2012 AS the race to become London mayor fast approaches its conclusion, we’re asking our Voice of the City panel, run in association with PoliticsHome.com, which candidate they trust more to lead the capital and fulfill their manifesto promises. Answer this week’s questions on key aspects of the policies laid out by Boris Johnson and Ken [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 24, 2012 DC Advisory Partners The corporate finance advisory firm has announced the appointment of Terry Huffine as executive director in its European consumer, leisure and retail team. Huffine joins after eight years with ABN AMRO and, following its acquisition, at the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was a director on the consumer team. He also [...]
BEST of the BROKERS April 24, 2012 MAN GROUP UBS has reiterated its “buy” rating on the alternative investment manager and reduced its target price from 165p to 140p, identifying Man as a potential takeover target ahead of its trading update next week. The broker said that a 50 per cent premium to the current price would be enough to get approval. [...]
FTSE recovers from Euro rout April 24, 2012 BRITAIN’S blue-chip shares rose yesterday, rebounding from a Europe-wide rout the previous day and helped by better-than-expected US housing data which boosted global risk appetite. The FTSE 100 index rose in tandem with US stocks following the release of US new home sales data, which dropped to four-month lows but came in above analysts’ expectations. [...]
Stocks rise on Dow and S&P April 24, 2012 THE Dow and the S&P 500 rose yesterday after strong earnings and upbeat outlooks from big manufacturers including 3M, but Apple’s slide ahead of its results drove the Nasdaq down. Shares of Apple, however, reversed course after the bell when the iPad maker reported quarterly revenue that handily beat Wall Street’s estimates. Apple’s stock jumped [...]
What businesses want in London’s new mayor: A wishlist from the CBI April 24, 2012 IN A YEAR of exciting events, the London mayoral elections are first in the capital’s diary, followed in the summer by the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Games. The spotlight will be on London, so there’s no better time to redouble our efforts to promote the city as a world-leading business centre. Whoever wins [...]
State spending leads to growth in Grossly meaningless Domestic Product April 24, 2012 TWO years ago, the Bank of England (BoE) predicted that GDP would today be growing at a rate of 2.5 per cent a year. It is in fact growing at 0.0 per cent or thereabouts. An economic forecaster overestimating GDP growth by 2.5 percentage points is like a weather forecaster predicting that the temperature will [...]
The chancellor’s cuts to loss relief will hurt startups April 24, 2012 A FRIEND of mine responded to an invitation to a Big Society philanthropic event, “not sure I want to be associated with a group of tax evaders (previously known as philanthropists)”. I believe the event was cancelled. The foolishness of limiting tax relief on charitable giving has already been exposed; but there has been less [...]
Is the Leveson Inquiry becoming an attack on the fundamental freedom of the press? April 24, 2012 YES Mick Hume The Leveson Inquiry is the enemy of a free press, a showtrial which found the tabloids guilty before it started. David Cameron set it up not to investigate phone-hacking but to sanitise and tame the entire “culture, practice and ethics” of the media. Who needs state censorship, when you can get a [...]
RAPID responses April 24, 2012 Decaying heritage [Re: A tax on heritage attacks the heart of local business, yesterday] I completely agree with the sentiment and tone of this article. The charity, church and not for profit sectors are not legitimate targets for governmental revenue-raising on this kind of scale. One hopes, by now, the message has dawned. We need [...]