House of Fraser plans to set up shop out of town in bid to boost revenues September 20, 2010 DEPARTMENT store chain House of Fraser is understood to be drawing up plans to open out-of-town stores. House of Fraser has hired property agency DTZ to find out-of-town stores as precious city centre space becomes more difficult to find. It would be the first time that the department store has opened stores outside city centre [...]
Ivy founder in Middle East deal September 20, 2010 Richard Caring, the entrepreneur behind The Ivy, Rivington Grill and Scott’s has signed a joint venture with Jumeirah, the Dubai-based hotels and leisure business. The deal allows Jumeirah to open restaurants under the Caring brands. There is already a Rivington grill in Dubai, which opened in 2008. It is understood Caring’s holding company, Caprice, will [...]
Queenco in Cambodia move September 20, 2010 Hotel and casino operator Queenco Leisure is moving into Cambodia. It yesterday signed a joint-venture deal with Paradise Investment to open a hotel, casino, restaurant and karaoke premises. This is Queenco’s first move into Asia, though it has businesses in Greece, Belgrade and Bucharest. It will own 70 per cent of the Cambodian venture, which [...]
Hong Kong gains ground on the City September 20, 2010 THE government was warned yesterday not to risk London’s position as the world’s largest financial centre as a report showed the City and New York losing ground to Hong Kong. Hong Kong has now joined New York and London as one of the “Big Three” financial centres for the first time, according to the latest [...]
French authorities fine 11 banks after price-fixing probe September 20, 2010 ELEVEN banks, including UK giant HSBC, were yesterday fined €384.9m (£323m) for colluding to fix the price they charge for handling cheques. The French competition authority found that the banks acted in concert to set interbank cheque fees on 80 per cent of cheques circulating in France between January 2002 and July 2007, during the [...]
German bank lobby warns new rules will choke profits and hurt growth September 20, 2010 NEW banking rules and levies aimed at preventing future financial crises will choke profits and may threaten economic growth, the trade lobby for Germany’s big banks said yesterday. The Basel III changes to banking capital rules adopted this month went in the right direction but, taken in context with a raft of other proposed taxes [...]
BP confirms the Macondo well killed off September 20, 2010 BP has “effectively killed” the leaking Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico 153 days after the explosion that caused the death of 11 oil rig workers. The group confirmed that it had sealed and killed the blown out well, which leaked over four million barrels of oil into the Gulf. The five month spill, [...]
Employers ignore staff needs September 20, 2010 Employers do not properly understand what motivates their staff to continue working for them, according to a report by one of the world’s largest recruitment and HR services companies. Randstad ranked the main factors driving people to stay at UK companies as their brand, culture and the benefits packages on offer. This was in sharp [...]
Brit Insurance shares rocket after it recommends CVC and Apollo takeover September 20, 2010 SHARES in Brit Insurance roared upwards yesterday after it advised shareholders to accept an £850m joint offer from buyout firm CVC Capital Partners and original bidder Apollo. Brit closed up 4.1 per cent at £10.28 yesterday as the markets reacted to news of the joint bid on Friday. The price values the listed element of [...]
Partners at Magic Circle law firms push rates up September 20, 2010 HOURLY rates charged by partners at the UK’s elite law firms have soared to £700, according to new research. An annual survey conducted by City costs lawyer, Jim Diamond, shows that rates charged by the top five Magic Circle law firms – Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slaughter and May, and Linklaters [...]
