THERE IS NO BATTLE: KLOSTERMANN DENIES FRAUD LORD FEUD August 18, 2011 DON’T BELIEVE the “tittle tattle” you read in the gossip columns, says Brocket Hall owner Dieter Klostermann, who yesterday turned to this gossip column to put the record straight about that feud with Lord Charlie Brocket. Klostermann’s leisure group CCA International bought Brocket Hall in 1996, after Brocket was jailed for a £4.5m classic cars [...]
London 2012 IMAGE OF THE WEEK August 18, 2011 This week saw the first event in the Olympic Park: the London Invitational in the new basketball arena. In the run-up to 2012, City A.M. is publishing its Olympic Image of the Week. If you have a shot you think our readers will like, please email pictures@cityam.com with IOW2012 in the subject line. Full details: [...]
Harry Potter magic lifts Cineworld August 18, 2011 CINEWORLD yesterday said it had started the second half strongly, with the latest Harry Potter film fuelling an increase in ticket sales. The group has hiked its dividend despite a drop in first-half profit, triggered by one-off costs. Revenues rose one per cent to £163.6m in the six months to the end of June. Operating [...]
Football tourists flock to UK August 18, 2011 MORE than 750,000 tourists watched a Premier League football match last year, splashing out an eye-watering £595m. Big spending football fans part with an average of £776 each, well above the average for all inbound visitors of £563. Norwegians are most likely to come to watch Premier League football, with one in thirteen of their [...]
Sears reports surprise losses August 18, 2011 RETAILER Sears Holdings, which is controlled by billionaire investor Eddie Lampert, reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss on weak sales, bigger discounts and higher costs yesterday. In the second quarter, sales fell 1.2 per cent to $10.3bn (£6.2bn), while analysts expected $10.5bn. Sales at US stores open at least a year fell 0.7 per cent, with [...]
Holidaybreak bookings drop August 18, 2011 BOOKINGS for Holidaybreak’s range of school trips, adventure tours, camping and hotel breaks fell in the five months to August. Superbreak, The Luxury Hotel Collection and Holidaybreak’s other hotels businesses are seeing sales trail ten per cent below the same time last year. The company, which is being taken over by Cox & King for [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: IS CINEWORLD COPING WELL IN THE TOUGH MARKET? August 18, 2011 GEETANJALI SHARMA | ESPIRITO SANTO This is a very encouraging set of results from Cineworld. It is encouraging to note that despite Avatar and Alice in Wonderland being in the first half 2010 comparatives and Harry Potter not included in first half 2011, Cineworld’s admissions are up 2.2 per cent year on year. NIGEL PARSON [...]
Tracinda offloads MGM shares August 18, 2011 Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp has sold 20m shares in gambling and resort operator MGM Resorts International, leaving it with a 22.8 per cent interest. Tracinda disclosed in a filing yesterday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it still held 111,173,744 shares after the sale. In April, Tracinda, which is based in [...]
TJ Hughes creditors lose £400m August 18, 2011 Discount chain TJ Hughes collapsed with total debts of £433.5m, administrators at Ernst & Young have said, and most creditors have little hope of recovering much of their money. The group, which collapsed in June despite investment from turnaround specialist Endless LLP, heard from 156 interested parties over a takeover or sale of the business, [...]
Science still below par as passes rise August 18, 2011 BUSINESS leaders yesterday said the number of students studying A-Level maths and science is still too low, despite an upswing in the number of candidates taking A-Levels in these subjects since 2010. The number of UK students sitting A-Level maths rose 7.8 per cent since last year, according to yesterday’s provisional data released by the [...]
