BILL OF THE WEEK May 31, 2009 CHINESE food has long been a favourite of City slickers in search of (relatively) cost-effective comfort food at the weekend, particularly when there’s no excuse to put the bill on expenses. So it was off to Goldfish in Hampstead last weekend for this group of well-heeled locals, who chowed down on crispy duck, wasabi prawns, [...]
RAMSAY RUFFLES A FEW RIVAL FEATHERS May 31, 2009 AFTER years of back-stabbing and open mutual hatred, you’d have thought Gordon Ramsay would have checked his facts before starting a slanging match with arch rival Marco Pierre White. Both celebrity chefs have fed many a wealthy City mouth at the likes of Maze and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and White’s Marco at Stamford Bridge and [...]
GOING FOR GOLD May 31, 2009 HOLIDAY Inn, the hotel budget chain will today announce it is the official sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics. It is believed the commercial partnership is worth around £10m – half of which is cash and the other half is through the provision of hotel rooms in the capital. The InterContinental Hotel chain has already [...]
Lloyds investors ponder law suit over HBOS deal May 31, 2009 A GROUP of small investors is preparing a legal campaign against the directors of Lloyds TSB over their takeover of HBOS, as the bank’s board faces up to a showdown at this Friday’s AGM. The UK Shareholders’ Association (UKSA) is sounding out more than a million small investors in Lloyds about a possible legal action [...]
PPF Partners launched May 31, 2009 Italian insurer Generali and Czech financial group PPF have launched a new private equity venture called PPF Partners. The new venture – which has already raised ¤615m (£537m) from Generali, PPF and PPF’s founder, Petr Kellner – will target central and eastern European investments. It has spent half the money on six assets transferred from [...]
Ball demands ITV rights issue May 31, 2009 Former BSkyB boss Tony Ball has told ITV shareholders that he would insist on a rights issue and financial restructuring of the struggling broadcaster if he took the role of chief executive. Investors in the company have given the proposal a mixed reaction, though many are believed to want Ball at the helm of ITV.
Q & A : CVC’S ROYAL MAIL BID May 31, 2009 Q.WHAT IS CVC CAPITAL PARTNERS?A.CVC is one of the world’s biggest private equity houses with 19 offices across Europe, Asia and the US. Since its founding in 1981 it has snapped up stakes in department store chain Debenhams and Formula One Group among over 250 others. It is in line to buy Barclays’ iShares asset [...]
CVC trumps TNT as Royal Mail bidder May 31, 2009 CVC PARTNERS, the private equity group, has offered to pay around £2bn for a 30 per cent stake in Royal Mail, it emerged yesterday, as the controversial bid to part privatise the franchise nudges ahead. The group’s offer beats a bid from rival logistics group TNT, but is less than the government has hoped to [...]
IBERIAN INFLUENCE May 31, 2009 THE UK chief executive of Santander, António Horta-Osório, is one of three heavyweight names to win an appointment to the Court of the Bank of England. He will be joined by outgoing chief executive of Prudential Mark Tucker and Harrison Young, who sits on the board of Australia’s Commonwealth Bank.
Expenses scandal masks big issues May 31, 2009 You may have seen the email doing the rounds a few weeks ago that gave a visual representation of what a trillion pounds would look like if it was stacked in £100 notes. The image is breathtaking – and largely surreal. I mention this because I’m increasing frustrated with the energy devoted to the scandal [...]
