Acquisitions bearing fruit for Astaire January 31, 2010 SMALL cap broking veteran Edward Vandyk is reaping the rewards of his aggressive drive for consolidation in the sector, after a series of new client wins for Astaire Securities pushed his firm into third position among the advisers to the Aim market. Astaire – which was renamed last year after Vandyk took over Blue Oar [...]
Soaring London fraud rate tops a bumper decade for criminals January 24, 2010 A record £1.3bn of fraud committed in 2009 highlights a surge in the level of the crime during the 2000s when 1,750 cases were registered. It meant fraudsters netted more than £7bn of ill-gotten gains in a decade which saw the ascent of high profile “super-cases” involving billions of dollars and notorious individuals such as [...]
Cadbury deal is first in an M&A boom for 2010 January 20, 2010 KRAFT’S takeover of Cadbury will not change our love of Dairy Milks and Creme Eggs, but it will take time before we start thinking of Cadbury as an American, rather than a British, institution. Before the year is out, though, we might have to get used to other much-loved businesses going the same way. Market-watchers [...]
Pubs and restaurants see sales jump in December despite gloom January 18, 2010 PUB and restaurant groups managed a 2.9 per cent year-on-year increase in sales in December despite poor weather, fewer Christmas parties and price hikes ahead of the VAT increase this month. However, the increase was lower than the 4.7 per cent total like-for-like growth in 2009. Mark Sheehan from Coffer Group, which published the figures, [...]
Weak pound fuels London sales boost January 18, 2010 SHOP sales in the capital soared over Christmas as tourists and Londoners embarked on spending sprees. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported that in London sales jumped 12 per cent in December – the best performance since it started publishing the figures in 2002. Visitors from Europe, China and the Middle East hit the shops, [...]
Highest earners punished as London tops world tax league January 14, 2010 CITY workers paid £1m a year will be the worst off high earners in the world when the 50 per cent rate of income tax is introduced from 6 April. A Londoner on £1m will take home £300,000 less than someone on the same salary in Singapore, £130,000 less than a similar earner in Tokyo [...]
Take the plunge, don’t be afraid January 14, 2010 SITTING in a leather armchair in the atrium just below his office in Chancery Lane, Grant Challis is musing on the last two years. In that time he has gone from working for a listed investment bank to starting up his own firm, Frostrow Capital: “The scary part is taking the plunge, the reality is [...]
A BABY RAY OF LIGHT PENETRATES THROUGH SNOWY SKIES OF GLOOM January 10, 2010 GLOOM, gloom and more gloom settles over us because of that dratted snow – dwindling grit supplies, an acute gas shortage, train cancellations, firms left in the lurch by snowed-in staff, the spiralling economic cost for small businesses… the list goes on and on. But there is hope on the horizon, according to a frisky [...]
NEWS | IN BRIEF January 3, 2010 Ski breaks hit by the recession Almost 20 per cent of UK consumers intend to sacrifice their annual winter sun or ski break this year to combat the financial pressures of the recession, research from accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has shown. But consumers will balance their winter thriftiness with a travel spending spree in the summer, [...]
SUITOR LIES IN WAIT AS HOODLESS PLANS FOR A CHANGE OF SCENERY December 17, 2009 THINGS are hotting up over at broker Hoodless Brennan, which I hear is currently in the final throes of negotiating a move from its current Canary Wharf HQ back to the quainter environs of the Square Mile. The brokers at Hoodless, which plans to shack up on Finsbury Pavement some time early next year, are [...]