Why the triathlon has become the ultimate water-cooler competition August 3, 2009 ON A NORMAL weekend you’re more likely to encounter tumbleweed in Docklands than serious signs of human activity. It might have been a bit of a shock this Sunday, then, to have seen 13,000 people swarming into the water at Royal Victoria docks, climbing out to run 10km and then cycling to Westminster and back. [...]
The pasta is brilliant, but eating at Jamie’s can be a stressful experience August 3, 2009 Jamie’s ItalianUnit 17, 2 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, E14 5RBTel: 020 3002 5252 Cost per person without wine: £25 THIS is the second of Jamie Oliver’s chain of wallet-friendly eateries to open in London – one opened in Kingston in late 2008, following the first in Oxford – and he couldn’t have chosen a better [...]
KICK OFF AT ESPN UK August 2, 2009 ESPN will today become the first non-UK channel to show Premier League football in the UK, as it launches its ESPN UK channel on Sky and Virgin Media. The channel will show 46 live Barclays Premier League matches – which it bought the rights to after Setanta UK went into administration – plus a selection [...]
IT’S OFFICIAL: BANK PROFITS ARE BACK August 2, 2009 BRITAIN’S biggest banks will this week herald a return to the gilded banking days of old as they post bumper interim profits, despite the impact of their mounting bad debts. Barclays is this morning expected to reveal a first-half pre-tax profit of £3.5bn, boosted by a stellar performance in its investment banking division, Barclays Capital, [...]
Banks gear up to report on the first half of a tough year August 2, 2009 The market’s attention is likely to be dominated this week by the banks, which will be reporting their first-half results during the five days. But there will be plenty more for investors to sink their teeth into, with insurers, bookmakers and industrials all on the radar too. Barclays and HSBC kick the week off this [...]
FTSE set to dip as banks hit spotlight August 2, 2009 MUCH of the rally of the past three weeks has been US earnings-led, but this week we’ll have the chance to see how a range of UK banks’ half-yearly numbers go down. The overall diagnosis is likely to be one of recoveries in profitability, with concerns mounting over soaring bad-loan losses. Two of the likely [...]
BP boosts FTSE as miners, telecoms and banks surge July 30, 2009 BRITAIN’S top share index ended close to a seven-month high yesterday, as better-than-expected earnings from the likes of BT boosted sentiment, lifting miners, banks and telecoms firms. The FTSE 100 closed up 1.9 per cent, or 84.08 points at 4,631.61 points, the highest level since January 6. The index is up 9 per cent so [...]
Reed share placing to be unveiled July 29, 2009 BUSINESS and scientific magazine publisher Reed Elsevier is today expected to announce plans for a huge rights issue, as it attempts to reduce its $8.3bn (£5.1bn) debt-pile. The Anglo-Dutch company’s new chief executive, Ian Smith, will unveil plans to raise up to 10 per cent of its value through a share placing, as he announces [...]
Temasek unveils 17bn loss July 29, 2009 Singapore state investor Temasek revealed yesterday that the value of its portfolio slid by at least $27bn (£16.5bn), or more than a fifth, in the 12 months ending in March. But the sovereign wealth fund, which made an estimated loss of £800m when it sold its stake in Barclays earlier this year, said it will [...]
Branson and sheikh go for final frontier July 28, 2009 VIRGIN Galactic’s space flight business is selling a $280m (£170m) stake to Manchester City football club’s Middle Eastern owner. Sir Richard Branson will sell 32 per cent of the company to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who last month made a £1.5bn profit selling shares in Barclays. Branson aims to have commercial space flights running [...]