New Google Nexus set to hit UK in next few weeks November 16, 2010 THE NEW Google phone is set to hit UK stores in the next few weeks, as exclusively revealed by City A.M. last month. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has unveiled a new phone running its Android operating system – believed to be the second version of its Nexus branded handset – that will hit stores [...]
Consumers are not willing to splash the cash November 16, 2010 The Christmas spending season is well under way, but there are some worrying signs for UK retailers in the latest Bloomberg/YouGov Household Economic Activity Tracker (HEAT). Particular concern is warranted around consumers’ willingness to purchase big ticket items, which can make or break a brand’s Christmas retail season. The report found that UK consumers have [...]
Learn He-Man’s recipe for great guns November 15, 2010 WHATEVER your feelings about the acting skills of Swedish action film star Dolph Lundgren, the man has guns. That is, insanely sculpted arms and a physique that suggests super-human strength. So when an opportunity arose to go and train with him while he was in London to promote his new film the Expendables, I couldn’t [...]
RUBENS AND CHARLES I WATCH LUXURY GONGS November 15, 2010 THE great and good of the British luxury brands industry gathered for one of the biggest events of the year last night, as its lobbying group, Walpole, held its annual awards. In Whitehall’s Banqueting Hall, under the glow of a delicately lit ceiling of Rubens masterpieces and near the site where King Charles I was [...]
CITY VIEWS: WILL RETAILERS HAVE A BETTER CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR ? November 15, 2010 ALEX READ | BDB BROKERS “I definitely think people will be worried about what they spend this year and will decide to cut back. People usually get into debt to pay for Christmas and worry about it in January, but I think people will try and avoid that this year.” LUKE GARRATT | DWF SOLICITORS [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 14, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES LLOYDS TO SPIN OFF BUY-OUT ARM The private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group has for the first time outlined plans for the UK’s most prolific buy-out investor to spin off from its banking parent. Darryl Eales, chief executive of Lloyds TSB Development Capital, said it was expected to start raising money from [...]
West End sees robust October high street sales November 14, 2010 SALES at London’s West End shops remained robust during October despite the details of the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review acting to unnerve consumers. According to lobby group the New West End Company, which is backed by major retailers and property owners in Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, West End sales rose 7.7 per [...]
Asking prices cut in bid to draw buyers November 14, 2010 SELLERS slashed their asking prices in November by 3.2 per cent, the biggest monthly fall since December 2007, as they try to attract bargain-hunting buyers. This is the fourth monthly fall in the past five months and takes the annual change to just 1.3 per cent, down from 2.9 per cent in October. Greater London [...]
THE TIPSTER November 14, 2010 THE minutes from this month’s Bank of England meeting will push sterling’s fortunes back into the spotlight. The outlook for the pound has been somewhat eclipsed by the euro in recent days given concerns over the Irish economy. Certainly any suggestion in the minutes that there is mounting support for a second round of QE [...]
TRAVEL NOTES November 14, 2010 Foody heaven in Cairo’s plush new hotel One of the more exciting hotels to open in the Middle East in the last few months is the Kempinski Nile Hotel – a place of truly swell luxuries that’s also raising the culinary stakes for the Egyptian capital. Its rooftop restaurant, Floor 10, mixes modern French cuisine [...]