Mercedes’ ultimate ticket to ride July 19, 2011 SOME days are good, some days are great. And no doubt about it: being driven around Goodwood in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG gullwing supercar by former F1 world champion Jody Scheckter is a great experience. Scheckter, now an organic farmer at Laverstoke Park Farm, says he’s not been on a race track in years. I [...]
CAR TALK July 19, 2011 PEUGEOT’S NEW FLAGSHIP Peugeot has shown its new flagship 508 RXH diesel-electric crossover ahead of its world premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. The four-wheel drive estate is powered by a 2.0-litre HYbrid4 drive unit which produces 200bhp and can be run in 100 per cent electric mode. Emissions are just 109g/km of [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 18, 2011 LAND SECURITIES Panmure Gordon rates the commercial property group hold with an 825p target price as it believes today’s trading update will confirm a trend of strong rent growth and tenant demand, particularly in central London. Panmure believes Land Sec has a portfolio of prime retail space that will maintain its growth despite a tough [...]
FTSE on back foot as bank stress tests loom July 15, 2011 The FTSE mirrored markets across Europe in early trading as investors awaited the results of bank strss tests with some lenders expected to fail to meet the criteria required. With persistent fears over the Eurozone debt crisis and the threat of a US rating downgrade casting a shadow market sentiment was tepid. European shares overall [...]
BHP Billiton to buy Petrohawk for £7.4bn July 15, 2011 Top global miner BHP Billiton will buy US gas producer Petrohawk Energy Corp for $12.1 billion (£7.4bn), ramping up its bets on the booming but environmentally controversial shale gas industry. The agreed all-cash deal is pitched at a 65 per cent premium to Petrohawk last-traded share price, and follows BHP’s $4.75bn purchase of Chesapeake Energy’s [...]
Jeep’s… back July 5, 2011 Us Brits should be forgiven for thinking Land Rover invented the luxury 4×4 with the Range Rover brand. In fact it was Jeep with its Wagoneer that created the segment, and by the mid 1990s, its successor, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, was just about everywhere in the US and ubiquitous in London too. Then sales [...]
GLENCORE’S GLASENBERG SHOWS HIS SOLIDARITY July 3, 2011 GLENCORE boss Ivan Glasenberg is notoriously elusive – but one event that persuaded the commodities billionaire to make a rare public appearance was a high-level mining industry dinner at Lord’s Cricket Ground in St John’s Wood. Glasenberg was no doubt drawn to the fifth London event of The Melbourne Mining Club last week by the [...]
National Grid appoints new chairman July 1, 2011 Power infrastructure supplier National Grid has appointed Sir Peter Gershon, chairman of Tate & Lyle and former head of the Office of Government Commerce, as its new chairman. Sir Peter will join the National Grid board on August 1 and then replace Sir John Parker, who steps down as chairman, on January 1, after nine [...]
Rolling towards a greener future June 28, 2011 IT seems fair to say that Rolls-Royce owners are not eco warriors. So when Rolls-Royce Motor Cars said they were building a prototype electric Rolls-Royce Phantom – called the 102EX or Phantom Experimental Electric (EE) – mine were not the only eyebrows raised. But at the very least the concept is intriguing. Why would Rolls-Royce [...]
FTSE closes up as banks and commodity shares rebound June 27, 2011 BRITAIN’S leading share index ended higher yesterday, supported by a rally from commodity issues and banks as investors awaited news about Greece’s debt crisis, expected over the next few days. Greece’s parliament began to debate measures to increase taxes and cut fiscal spending, approval for which is needed for the European Union and International Monetary [...]