Any Other Business – 27/08 August 26, 2013 Pork processor Cranswick held a lunch for private client brokers last week and The Capitalist hears that finance director Mark Bottomley was trotting out the sausage trivia in abundance. Brokers were entertained with sizzling facts from Bottomley, such as if one were to lay all the sausages which were produced by the company during the [...]
Eurozone hauls itself out of recession but growth remains fragile August 26, 2013 THE Eurozone has finally exited its longest recession. Rather than smashing through the barrier, it limped over the line with 0.3 per cent growth in the second quarter of this year – although even this was enough to exceed weary expectations. It is clear that any recovery remains fragile – fortunately, even those EU leaders [...]
For-profit universities could deliver welcome change to higher education August 26, 2013 IN A bold and commendable move, the government last week granted university status to BPP University, making it the second for-profit private higher education institution in the UK. It comes less than a year after the University of Law (formerly the College of Law) became the first private university to be established since Buckingham (officially [...]
Brand Index: Blackberry’s new model failed to stem its brand decline August 26, 2013 THERE was a spike for BlackBerry on Twitter on Monday with 41 per cent of the UK Twitter population exposed to messages about the brand. They were of course hearing the news that the mobile phone manufacturer is setting up a committee to explore potential business model options, including selling off the company. So what [...]
Shipping broker Clarkson sees further rough trading ahead | City A.M. August 25, 2013 SHIPPING services firm Clarkson is still being buffeted by the choppy global economy, with flat revenues and profits in the first six months of the year. The London-listed company, which brokers boats for some of the world’s largest producers and traders of natural resources, posted revenues of £89.1m and pre-tax profits of £10.8m. “Rates across [...]
Italian delicatessen La Bottega ready for expansion in London August 25, 2013 UPMARKET Italian deli La Bottega is set to expand in London after getting a £2m investment from a fund run by private equity veteran Peter Dubens. The chain, which currently has six sites in Belgravia, Chelsea, South Kensington, Ryder Street, Berners Street and Pont Street, is in line for £960,000 of new equity and a [...]
UK needs to stop deliberately inflating residential land prices August 25, 2013 MY column yesterday revealing that the French are building three times more homes than the British every year – an astonishing fact which highlights the gravity of our housing supply crisis – elicited a number of typical counter-arguments. The most common was that the French have plenty of land, and we don’t, so it isn’t [...]
US new home sales see biggest drop since May 2010 August 23, 2013 US new home sales have seen a massive fall, dropping from 0.455m (revised from 0.497m) to 0.394m in July. Economists had forecast a fall from the unrevised figure to 0.485m. On a more-reliable 3-month average, new home sales have slipped, but haven't cratered. See the chart. pic.twitter.com/bo91LpBMtc — Rex Nutting (@RexNutting) August 23, 2013 That [...]
Eurozone consumer confidence hits July 2011 high August 23, 2013 Eurozone consumer confidence has risen from -17.4 to -15.6 in August. That's a July 2011 high. Economists had forecast an improvement to just -16.5. Christian Schulz, senior economist, Berenberg: The drop in confidence after the fateful July 2011 decision to impose losses on private holders of Greek bonds has still not fully been recovered. Confidence [...]
Steve Ballmer’s net worth up $1bn as Microsoft announces that he will retire August 23, 2013 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is to retire within the next 12 months upon completion of the process to find successor, the tech giant has announced (release). Now Bill Gates and a special committee will undertake that process to find the right guy for the job. Stock in the company has been pretty stagnant since Gates' [...]
