Osmond launches £500m buyout fund January 10, 2010 ENTREPRENEUR Hugh Osmond will this week announce plans to float a £500m turnaround vehicle on the London Stock Exchange. The Horizon fund, expected to list before the end of January, will target one large investment in a consumer-facing business. Advisers from Osmond’s private equity firm Sun Capital have drawn up a long list of prospective [...]
Outlook continues to present challenges for retail January 10, 2010 In a bout of not-particularly-investigative journalism, I set Tesco a mystery shopper challenge last week, ordering a hefty shop be delivered to my home just as the heaviest snow was due to fall. Right on time two cheerful chaps showed up without even a word of complaint about the weather. Impressive. We’ll have to wait [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK January 10, 2010 A NEW gastronomic haunt to grace the column this week, as this group of diners headed off to restaurant, bar and entertainment venue Circus in the West End. After a magnum of Laurent Perrier to kick off the evening, they enjoyed starters of langoustines and pulled pork, mains of Cajun tuna, fillet steak and schnitzel, [...]
Flurry of impairment charges looms January 10, 2010 Companies will have to carry out further write-downs of poorly performing assets this year as the global economy struggles to recover, according to investors, analysts and lenders surveyed by Ernst & Young. The survey of 170 global firms showed that nearly half of those questioned believe the level of impairment charges reported since the financial [...]
Ex-Betonsports boss to serve time January 10, 2010 The former chief executive of Betonsports, the defunct online gambling site, has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison. David Carruthers was arrested in Texas in July 2006, and pleaded guilty to racketeering charges linked to the company’s operations in the US, where online gambling is illegal. Carruthers was ordered to spend 33 months [...]
Tesco in line for sales hike January 10, 2010 TESCO is being tipped for a like-for-like sales hike of up to four per cent when it issues its trading update tomorrow. The figures are expected to reflect a healthy seasonal boost as customers splashed out over the holiday. Analysts predict that the supermarket chain’s doubling of Clubcard points over the period would help to [...]
Peacocks fashion expansion after strong Christmas trade January 10, 2010 Budget fashion chain Peacocks added to signs of a robust Christmas for Britain’s retailers, helped by its tie-up with singer-turned-designer Pearl Lowe, and yesterday said it planned to step up its expansion. The firm, taken private in 2005 by a consortium including US hedge funds Perry Capital and Och-Ziff, said sales at stores open at [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW DO YOU EXPECT TESCO TO HAVE PERFORMED THIS TIME? January 10, 2010 JONATHAN PRITCHARD | ORIEL SECURITIES I see the figures being as much as four per cent up on last year. The Clubcard doubling of points has made a big difference and I cannot see any reason why the figures should not follow the trend of Sainsbury’s and be significantly up. KEITH BOWMAN | HARGREAVES LANSDOWN [...]
City rents up for first time since 2007 January 10, 2010 CITY office rents rose for the first time in three years at the end of 2009, boosting confidence that office rents have bottomed out. A report from Cushman & Wakefield reveals 41 per cent of the year’s total take-up of office space took place in the last quarter of 2009. The take-up of 2.6m sq [...]
Balanced debate is needed on future of banking January 10, 2010 As people from across the City brave the wintry conditions let us hope that policy makers can help provide a brighter forecast for the financial services industry over the coming year. The past 12 months have seen the business environment in a state of almost constant flux. A series of measures – most notably the [...]
