Best Buy mulls founder’s offer to take it over August 6, 2012 AMERICAN electronics retailer Best Buy may be taken private after founder and former chairman Richard Schulze made an offer to the company’s board valuing it at up to $9bn (£5.8bn) yesterday. Schulze’s offer to buy the 80 per cent of Best Buy he does not already own sent shares in the retailer up 17 per [...]
Chinese Origo funds dip in value August 6, 2012 Chinese private equity investors Origo Partners, which is listed in London, reported a 4.8 per cent dip in its portfolio values yesterday, falling to $227.7m (£149.5m) over the quarter as waning commodity prices dented its mining investments. The firm, based in Beijing but listed on the Alternative Investment Market, saw a drop in net asset [...]
Next bucks the gloom and sets sights on China July 30, 2012 NEXT is to launch its website in Chinese this autumn as Britain’s second largest clothes retailer steps up its expansion overseas. The company will update the market on its online growth plans alongside its half-year results on Wednesday, with its catalogue and online Directory business again expected to have offset a fall in sales at [...]
High street’s unlikely innovator July 30, 2012 ONCE again it looks like Next will buck the depressing high street trend on Wednesday, as analysts predict a much more rosy set of results from the retailer than we’ve seen from its rivals. The chain’s garish bling-trimmed kit for Team GB may not have been a resounding success, but when it comes to business [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 26, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Universal in talks to hive off Parlophone Universal Music is in talks to sell most of Parlophone, one of the crown jewels of EMI and home to Coldplay and Gorillaz, in an attempt to overcome the concerns of EU regulators reviewing its £1.2bn bid for the British recorded music group. BMG, the music [...]
China have the power to beat USA in Olympic gold rush again July 26, 2012 OLYMPIC fever is upon us at last. With one study suggesting home support can boost a host nation’s medal haul by over 50%, Team GB’s official target of 48 medals, just one more than they claimed in Beijing four years ago, seems conservative. Sporting Index’s spread of 62-64 is more realistic but we shouldn’t get [...]
Swatch revenue soars despite weaker China luxury demand July 24, 2012 BOOMING demand for mid-priced watches in China is more than offsetting a slight cooling at the top end of the market, Swatch Group said yesterday as it stuck to a forecast for record annual sales. The world’s largest watchmaker, whose Omega brand is the official timekeeper for the London Olympics, reported first-half sales up 14 [...]
Asia shares up after China PMI July 24, 2012 Asian shares inched higher on Tuesday, helped by improving Chinese manufacturing data, but the euro remained under pressure as surging Spanish borrowing costs stoked fears that the Eurozone’s fourth-largest economy will be forced to seek a bailout. The HSBC flash China manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to a five-month high in July, driven up by [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 23, 2012 Financial times Local staff hired as G4S fails G4S has been replaced as the security contractor for Olympic football matches in Newcastle after games organisers realised that the company could not provide enough staff to safeguard the venue. Farmers agree milk price deal Dairy farmers have struck a deal “in principle” with processing companies and supermarkets [...]
Commodities face a hard landing July 23, 2012 AS THE European economy shows no sign of pulling itself up by its own bootstraps, and with the US hardly faring any better, markets have been heavily dependent on Chinese demand to bolster commodity prices. But the predictions from a Chinese central bank adviser over the weekend did little to give markets confidence that the [...]