French set for Camelot bid scrutiny January 12, 2010 THERE are “major questions” over a bid for National Lottery operator Camelot by a French state-run company, according to the European Gaming and Betting Association. La Française des Jeux, which is eyeing a bid within the next month, has a complete monopoly in its domestic market. European bodies and rival bidders are looking into whether [...]
Waitrose and Sainsbury’s boost their brands January 12, 2010 RETAILERS have had a bumper Christmas according to the British?Retail?Consortium, but here is my review of 2009 as far as supermarkets are concerned. Graph 1 shows the share of total attention that each of the six received on BrandIndex. Over the course of 2009, Aldi and Asda dropped, Tesco and Morrison’s stayed steady, and Waitrose [...]
Iceland debt negotiations break down January 12, 2010 ICELAND’S hopes of striking a new deal on repaying vast sums to Britain and the Netherlands were dealt a setback yesterday when the island’s Dutch creditors said no fresh negotiations were underway. Iceland’s president refused last week to sign a bill setting out terms for repaying more than $5bn (£3.19bn) owed to the two countries, [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 12, 2010 GREENE KING Collins Stewart believes Greene King is under valued and recommends investors “buy”. It says both growth and resilience are built into its business model and thinks its estimates are achievable. The availability of efficient debt allows the pub company continued investment when other firms are likely to struggle, it says. SABMILLER Evolution Securities [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 12, 2010 KBC Peel Hunt The mid and small cap corporate broking firm has made three senior hires. Stuart Duncan joins Peel Hunt’s equity research team from The Royal Bank of Scotland. Mark McGuinness, previously co-head of sales trading at Numis Securities, joins as a director in the sales trading team. Duncan and McGuinness join Andrew Chapman [...]
Even in 2010, some gay lawyers say coming out can damage your career January 12, 2010 AN article counselling young gay lawyers on the tricky matters of etiquette for coming out at work includes the following advice: “Do take your significant other to the firm’s Christmas party… probably best to avoid getting heroically drunk and snogging to slow numbers”. Perhaps it’s no surprise that it has proved a controversial New Year [...]
FINES ALONE WON’T MAKE FSA CREDIBLE January 12, 2010 ROBERT FALKNER REED SMITH LLP LAST year the FSA began talking the talk, with a number of policy speeches about the need for enforcement to “deliver credible deterrence”. Indeed, 2009 was a record year for bank fines. FSA rules for the registration of directors and senior managers – persons holding significant influence functions – for [...]
Four by phwoar January 12, 2010 I’VE just returned from a stint on the East Coast of the USA where I thought we had done quite well with snow. The thing is, it’s no surprise when it arrives over there. “Snow days” tend to close schools, but people are out shovelling immediately, protecting themselves from any litigious opportunists. Snowploughs are put [...]
OUT OF OFFICE January 12, 2010 BARBERSHOPERA II A popular highlight at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Rob Castell’s sequel to his award-winning Barbershopera! is returning for a brief West End run. It’s a distinctly silly musical telling the story of a Catalan matador who inherits his father’s Norfolk barbershop. Find out how he fares impressing the locals with his continental [...]
High street celebrates Xmas boost January 11, 2010 SNOWY weather and economic gloom could not deter British shoppers from hitting the high streets in their droves last month, giving retailers their best December performance in four years, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) will say today. Total retail sales values increased by an astonishing six per cent last month on December 2008 and 5.4 [...]
