Evans Randall sells Allianz office March 2, 2011 Investment bank Evans Randall has sold 60 Gracechurch Street, home of insurance firm Allianz, to German investor KGAL after owning it for just over three years. The companies have not disclosed the sale price, but it is thought to be around £116m. Allianz, which moved into the building in 2009 when Commerzbank moved its investment [...]
Fenchurch in administration March 2, 2011 Fashionable streetwear brand Fenchurch International went into administration last week, blaming the rising cost of cotton and higher labour costs. RSM Tenon has been appointed as the administrator. The administration puts 40 head office jobs at threat. Fenchurch turned over £11m in the 12 months to 31 April 2010 and achieved a gross profit of [...]
Construction heats up after winter freeze March 2, 2011 GROWTH in UK construction hit an eight-month high in February, as the sector bounced back from a snow-affected winter. However, margins in the industry are taking a hammering from soaring commodity prices, with input costs rising at their fastest rate since August 2008. The latest purchasing managers’ index, released yesterday, reported a rise to 56.5 [...]
London house prices steady as market recovers March 2, 2011 LONDON is set to buck the trend of Britain’s housing slump, according to Hometrack’s latest national housing survey, released today. While prices across the country fell by 0.2 per cent in February, they stayed level in the capital, the survey said. It was the first time that London’s prices had held strong after seven months [...]
US economy strengthens in 2011 March 2, 2011 US ECONOMIC activity kept slowly gaining strength as 2011 opened and manufacturers and retailers were having some success in pushing their prices up, the Federal Reserve said yesterday. “Reports from the 12 Federal Reserve districts indicated that overall economic activity continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace in January and early February,” the [...]
BERNANKE CALLS FOR FISCAL RESOLUTION March 2, 2011 FEDERAL Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke urged Congress to “lay out a [fiscal] plan that will be credible” for the US, yesterday. Bernanke estimated that the Republicans’ preferred $60bn spending cuts would knock 0.2 per cent off GDP in its first year, far below other forecasts. While not endorsing the Republican plans, he said an unsustainable [...]
CITY VIEWS: IS THIS THE RIGHT TIME TO START SAVING? March 2, 2011 Save or Borrow peer to peer at RateSetter.com HARRY DUNNE | INSURANCE BROKER “There’s no point in saving money. Interest rates are not appealing at the minute and the best thing you can do is pay off your mortgage.” WILLIAM LEWIS | HAMPDEN CAPITAL “This is not the right moment to start saving. Interest rates [...]
Euro rises on inflation concerns March 2, 2011 The euro shot up against the dollar yesterday on the back of producer prices in the Eurozone rising even higher than expected, up 1.5 per cent in January, compared to December. The increase left industrial producer prices up 6.1 per cent on the same time last year, the Eurostat office announced yesterday. With oil prices [...]
Polish Bank holds interest rates March 2, 2011 The National Bank of Poland kept its benchmark 3.75 per cent interest rate unchanged yesterday, triggering a weakening of the zloty down to 3.9706 zlotys to the euro. Polish inflation climbed from 3.1 to 3.8 per cent in January amid rising food and petrol prices.
Cost of renting exceeds buying March 2, 2011 The cost of renting is 10.5 per cent more on average than buying a house with a mortgage at five per cent per annum, according to property website Zoopla.co.uk. Renting is now a more expensive option than owning in 80 per cent of Britain’s cities, while the cost difference is currently on the rise, it [...]
