CITY VIEWS: HAVE YOU NOTICED PRICE RISES EASING IN CONSUMER GOODS? December 13, 2011 TONY KIERNAN ACME PACKET “Not so much with food – but to be honest I don’t do the shopping, my wife does. I’m more aware of the price of petrol – it often stops me getting in the car.” PHILIP GIFFORD DELOITTE “I’ve definitely noticed food prices stagnating, especially bread and milk. Prices have risen [...]
Retailers say Portas could limit growth December 13, 2011 RETAILERS and landlords have questioned calls by retail expert Mary Portas for measures that would stall out-of-town developments and create a “level playing field” with town centres. In her long-awaited high street review commissioned by the Prime Minister in May, Portas said Britain’s high streets had reached “a crisis point” and warned they could “disappear [...]
Mary’s method: 28 steps to save the high street December 13, 2011 ● Put in place a “town team” – a visionary, strategic and strong operational management team for high streets ● Empower successful business improvement districts to take on more responsibilities and powers and become “super-BIDs” ● Legislate to allow landlords to become high-street investors by contributing to their business improvement districts ● Establish a new [...]
TOP LINES | WHAT WENT WRONG ON THE UK HIGH STREET December 13, 2011 ● The phenomenal growth of online retailing, the rise of shopping through mobile phones, and the sophistication of the major retailers combined with a crippling recession, have all conspired to change today’s retail landscape, Portas said. ● Town centre vacancy rates have doubled over the last two years. With shoppers flocking out of town, less [...]
IG Group sizes up MF Global’s ex-client base December 13, 2011 ROUGH financial markets pushed IG Group’s like-for-like revenues up by a better-than-expected 28 per cent in the past six months, it said yesterday. The spreadbetting group said overall revenues are expected to reach £195.6m for the six months to the end of November, with “strong growth” in revenue of 25 per cent when its closed-down [...]
Exchanges eye new disposals December 13, 2011 STOCK exchange giants Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext offered to sell off large chunks of their derivatives businesses yesterday in a new offer to try to push their $10bn (£6.4bn) merger through European regulators. The two exchanges said they would be willing to sell off more of their European single equity derivatives businesses currently operated [...]
Morgan Stanley takes a $1.8bn hit in MBIA case December 13, 2011 MORGAN Stanley and MBIA have agreed a settlement that will remove some risky derivative contracts from the bank’s books and end lawsuits the parties had filed against one another. The deal, announced yesterday, will result in a $1.8bn (£1.16bn) charge for Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter. After a tax credit, the bank will lose [...]
Best Buy hit as America reins in its retail spending December 13, 2011 US retail sales grew at their slowest pace in five months in November, tempering expectations for a strong holiday shopping season. Retail sales increased a weaker-than-expected 0.2 per cent after gaining 0.6 per cent in October, a commerce department report showed yesterday. Some economists warned that some of the strength in US spending has come [...]
LSE neck and neck with Chi-X in November trade December 13, 2011 THE LONDON Stock Exchange group narrowly stayed as Europe’s biggest equity trading venue by turnover in November, with €191.4bn (£163bn) traded across all its venues, figures out yesterday showed. The LSE’s nearest competitor, multilateral trading facility (MTF) Chi-X Europe, saw turnover of €151.6bn in November but failed to match the LSE’s level even when added [...]
Was Cameron right to veto EU treaty? December 13, 2011 WITH Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to veto planned amendments to the Lisbon treaty still sending shockwaves through the cabinet, we’re asking our Voice of the City panel, run in association with PoliticsHome.com, whether Cameron made the right move. Was the veto, as Cameron said in the Commons on Monday, necessary “to protect Britain’s national [...]
