London snubbed by Russian Papa John’s February 13, 2011 THE RUSSIAN franchise of Papa John’s, the global pizza chain, has snubbed London to list on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Worldwide Papa’s, which operates four outlets in St. Petersburg under the American brand Papa John’s, will today begin trading in Germany. The development comes after a slew of Russian companies pulled plans to list in [...]
Waitrose opens overseas February 13, 2011 WAITROSE is set to open one of five shops in the Channel Islands this week, in its first owner-operated venture outside the UK. The Thursday opening of its 21,000 square foot shop in St Saviour, Jersey, comes just a week after the retailer opened its first shop in Bahrain. However, unlike Bahrain, which is operated [...]
Head of CBI makes first big changes February 13, 2011 THE new director of the CBI, John Cridland, has made a raft of changes to his senior management team in his first major act at the top of the business employers’ group. Cridland, who took over from Richard Lambert last month, has appointed two of his staff to senior roles as he looks to make [...]
More firms use Human Rights Act February 13, 2011 THE number of businesses using the Human Rights Act to fight their legal disputes is rising, even as politicians debate replacing it with a British bill of rights. Research shows the number of reported court cases where businesses used the act as part of their legal case jumped 63 per cent from 19 to 31 [...]
BA severs ties with UBS February 13, 2011 BRITISH Airways has severed ties with UBS, the corporate broker the airline has used for 24 years. The carrier has chosen Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital, following its merger with Spanish airline Iberia. The newly formed International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), which listed in London and Madrid last month, decided to end its relationship with [...]
Broughton secures backing for Tote bid February 13, 2011 THE deputy chairman of British Airways’ newly formed owner, Sir Martin Broughton, has lined up support for his bid to buy state-owned bookmaker the Tote. The former Liverpool football club chairman, who has been a racehorse owner for many years, has received backing from Penta Capital, a buyout firm. The Glasgow-based investor, which has stakes [...]
JJB Sports to fight for new rent proposal February 13, 2011 JJB SPORTS was heading for a battle with its landlords and other retailers after confirming its company voluntary agreement (CVA) is to include the renegotiation of two-fifths of its rent payments. The company has warned its biggest landlords, including British Land, Henderson and Prudential, that if its terms for discount rent and tenancy breaks for [...]
Project Merlin has to avoid mistakes of past February 13, 2011 LAST week, George Osborne announced to the House of Commons that the four largest UK banks – HSBC, Barclays, RBS and Lloyds – have finally signed up to what has been dubbed project Merlin. There is no doubt this agreement is good news if it starts to rebuild the banks’ relationship with the government and [...]
Infrastructure India taps UK shareholders February 13, 2011 INFRASTRUCTURE India has become the latest Indian firm to tap the UK markets for investment cash, raising £33m in a share placing. Shares worth £25.5m at 60.5p each have been placed with existing and new investors and will start trading on AIM on Thursday, the firm said at the weekend. Specialist energy investor Guggenheim Global [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 13, 2011 Barclays Wealth Solomon Soquar (pictured) has joined the asset manager as head of the strategic solutions group, which is a core part of its ultra-high net worth operation. He will report to Stefanie Drews. Soquar joins the firm from Citi Private Bank, where he was in capital markets. Previously, he has worked at Merrill Lynch [...]
