What the other papers say this morning January 11, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LAWYERS URGE HUNT TO BE CAREFUL OVER SKY BID Jeremy Hunt must act carefully to avoid legal challenge to his role in regulating News Corp’s proposed bid for British Sky Broadcasting, after his department sent Rupert Murdoch’s company a key document, lawyers said. Three competition experts yesterday said the culture secretary’s move could [...]
What to do about financial illiteracy January 10, 2011 HERE is a suggestion for the City’s top banks: each should make an immediate and very large donation to a special new educational fund for financial literacy. I’m talking real money here, hundreds of millions for each of the mega-banks, as well as contributions from big insurers and wealth managers – when I first started [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 9, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES GOLDMAN TEAM RAISES MONEY FOR NEW FUND The last big proprietary trading team at Goldman Sachs has begun raising money to start a new hedge fund independent of the bank, for launch in the second quarter of this year. The team – led by two senior members of Goldman Sachs’ Principal Strategies desk, [...]
PROPERTY NEWS January 6, 2011 WHERE TO BUY IN 2011 Predictions for the property market may be uncertain, but independent homefinders network County Homesearch has named the areas it expects to be bucking the trend for sliding prices. These include perennial favourites like Alderley Edge in Cheshire, Exeter in Devon and East Hampshire, but it also names places such as [...]
Swedish, swift and very swish January 4, 2011 THIS is the first Saab to be launched since GM handed the brand over to Dutch supercar maker Spyker, and one that gives a flavour of what Saab might look like in the future. It’s been a long, long 13-year wait since the previous 9-5. Thankfully this one is a lot more attractive and slick [...]
What the other papers say this morning December 22, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES PATTEN TOPS LIST TO CHAIR BBC TRUST Six people are on the shortlist to be the next chairman of the BBC Trust, according to two insiders who have seen the document. Lord Patten, former Conservative party chairman and the last governor of Hong Kong, is clear favourite. But Sir Howard Davies, director of [...]
UK has fewer empty homes December 19, 2010 THE number of English homes left standing empty for six months or longer dropped for the first time in three years last year, in a sign that a stagnant housing market and high rental demand is pushing up occupancy levels. The number of long-term empty private houses dropped by more than 20,000, or six per [...]
Carpetright in profit blow as sales tumble December 14, 2010 CARPETRIGHT, the country’s biggest floor coverings retailer, said the outlook for 2011 looked poor as sluggish mortgage approvals meant housing market activity was unlikely to pick up quickly. British mortgage approvals, which are a key lead indicator for Carpetright, fell to 30,766 in October, their lowest monthly level in more than one and a half [...]
Looking ahead to 2011: some likely winners and laggards December 14, 2010 FROM sovereign debt crises threatening the very future of the euro to currency wars and more quantitative easing, 2010 has been an eventful year in the foreign exchange markets. Currency traders will be pleased to hear that volatility, which has been so characteristic of the FX markets since the crisis, is unlikely to disappear any [...]
500,000 households in negative equity December 12, 2010 CLOSE to half a million British households could be facing negative equity, according to survey released today by the Bank of England. Between four and five per cent of mortgage holders owe more than the value of their properties, it was revealed in the Bank’s final quarterly bulletin of this year. There are 11.4m mortgages in [...]