Hula Hoops maker mulls snack sell off August 19, 2012 PRIVATE equity-backed firm United Biscuits is understood to have put its subsidiary KP Snacks, maker of McCoy’s, Hula Hoops, KP Nuts and Skips, up for sale, with Chinese firm Wahaha said to be leading the bidders yesterday.
City Moves Who’s switching jobs August 19, 2012 Savills Ray Clement has been appointed head of hotels for Asia Pacific at the real estate advisory firm. He was previously a director in the hotels team at CBRE. Clement has been in the hotels business for over 15 years, and has worked on hotel sales transactions in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore and Australia. Coutts [...]
Best of the Brokers August 19, 2012 G4S Panmure Gordon rates the security firm as a “hold” ahead of its half year results on 28 August, with a target price at 262p. It recently increased its target price from 236p to 262p. The firm’s defensive characteristics and exposure to emerging markets makes a sub-230p price, an “interesting entry point,” the broker says. [...]
Market awaits public finance and GDP news August 19, 2012 HIGHLIGHTS for the economic week ahead will be tomorrow’s release of UK’s public finance data, followed by the revision of the second quarter’s GDP figures on Friday. While analysts fear there will only be a small surplus for the July finances figure – or possibly a loss – market watchers believe there will be some [...]
Wall Street is waiting for technical signals as doubt remains over rally August 19, 2012 IN the absence of data or policy catalysts and with the S&P 500 near four-year highs, market participants are hoping technical indicators hold the clues on whether stocks will sell off into September following a slow-speed rally. The S&P 500 is a scant 0.06 per cent away from closing at highs last seen in the [...]
Release our business schools from the dead hand of state regulation August 19, 2012 THE UK’s centrally-planned universities could do with a shake-up. One way to do this is to begin the privatisation of higher education in those areas most suitable for it – particularly business education. Higher education has many purposes. But the most important is the preparation of young people to enter the world of work, and [...]
How UK business can match Team GB’s performance August 19, 2012 A WEEK since the Olympics closed, some commentators are already talking post-Games blues. But this is our honeymoon period, our chance to capitalise on a successful fortnight of the UK at its best. We’ve witnessed an amazing journey. An east London wasteland has been transformed – 1.5m cubic metres of contaminated soil was painstakingly cleaned, [...]
The financial sector is vital to unlocking Britain’s potential for growth August 19, 2012 AFTER an incredible couple of weeks for the UK, the first leg of London 2012 has drawn to a close. It has shown the very best of Britain, with athletes from over 200 countries coming to demonstrate their excellence. Team GB excelled, just as Britain excels in business. There’s an old joke that the British [...]
As Facebook’s shares drop to record lows, can the internet firm easily salvage the situation? August 19, 2012 YES Richard Nunn The true valuation of Facebook is not about short-term gains or losses, but a medium-term play about how it monetises its user base of nearly 1bn people. The five tranches of share lock-up expirations will affect its price in the short term, as it will inevitably discourage new investors from buying the [...]
Rapid responses August 19, 2012 Rental promise [Re: Boris needs to be innovative to get the private sector building houses, Friday] Yes, London needs more homes. But it specifically needs more affordable rental homes. With record rents being reported in the capital, it’s only by increasing rental housing stock, and building property specifically designed for long-term rent, that we will [...]
