The £120m question: Will Gold and Sullivan cash in? February 14, 2011 IN THEIR first press conference as majority owners of West Ham on 18 January last year, David Gold and David Sullivan made clear their ambition to move the club into the Olympic Stadium after the London 2012 Games. They knew it had the potential to catapult the debt-laden East End club into the big league; [...]
ROCHESTER February 10, 2011 WHORNES PLACE, CUXTON Price: £850,000 A magical home with a unique blend of old and new qualities. This property is grade II listed and steeped in history. It even has a coat of arms inscribed above the front door. However, it has been renvovated to the highest standards of modern luxury. The walled garden is more [...]
BUYING February 10, 2011 Q.I am thinking of buying a buy-to-let property in central London. What type of property makes the best rental and which tenant market should I be going after? A.We tend to advise our investment clients to opt for a two double bedroom, two bathroom configuration for a rental investment. This set-up will appeal to a [...]
FTSE held back by blue-chips and miners February 9, 2011 London trading was weighed down by falls in major stocks trading ex-dividend, outweighing strong performances by financial stocks. The FTSE 100 closed down 0.64 per cent or 30.04 points at 6,052.29, as BP, GlaxoSmithKline, International Power, Royal Dutch Shell, Sage Group and Unilever all lost their payout attractions. “After Tuesday’s leap to multi-year highs, a [...]
What the other papers say this morning February 8, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BRUSSELS URGED TO END BIG FOUR DOMINANCE Four international accountancy networks have taken the unusual step of jointly calling for changes to the audit market in Europe and arguing that regulatory intervention is needed to dilute the power of the profession’s biggest operators. BDO International, RSM International and Grant Thornton International, the world’s [...]
Lawyers are bad at business? Think again February 8, 2011 THIS paper recently ran an article warning that for lawyers “doom is nigh” and that they should shape up or ship out. The context was the Legal Services Act and its welcome shake up of the way in which legal services can be delivered. The article had many solid, good messages: in summary, cutting overheads [...]
HISTORY IN reverse February 3, 2011 THE ESSENTIALS of what makes a mechanical watch tick have barely changed in 400 years. Back then, it was the British who were leading the way in the world of cogs, escapements and balance wheels, and the thread of that history can still be found in many watches produced today. We’ve covered that on page [...]
RULE BRITANNIA… with more than a little help from the Swiss February 3, 2011 ONE of the most striking timepieces produced by a watch company in the past year hasn’t been a watch at all, but a mechanical ship’s clock. Nor was it just the advanced technology behind the clock or the £40,000 price-tag that grabbed the attention. It was the fact that every inch of it, down to [...]
Dow and S&P close at a 31-month high February 1, 2011 THE Dow and S&P 500 closed at their highest levels since June 2008 yesterday and looked poised for more gains after strong earnings and signs of a surge in US manufacturing. Data showing improved factory activity and strong results from shipping company UPS, seen as a gauge for economic activity, bolstered the growing impression among [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 27, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES POLICE TARGET “HACKTIVISTS” An online “hacktivist” group that brought down the websites of perceived opponents of WikiLeaks has itself become the target of an international police crackdown. The London Metropolitan Police arrested five men in connection with a recent spate of attacks by Anonymous, behind last month’s revenge assault on the websites of [...]