Mixed reactions to yesterday’s Budget March 25, 2010 THE chancellor’s Budget speech contained many references to entrepreneurs, but what was the substance, and will small businesses actually benefit? The main announcement was a one-off £2.5bn package to help small businesses. However, not all of this money will go directly to helping entrepreneurs. “The package includes all sorts of things including the university regeneration [...]
Green investment bank will invest in renewables March 24, 2010 AMONG the more eye-catching proposals in the Budget was the plan for a £2bn state-backed investment bank to develop infrastructure and renewable energy projects. Chancellor Alistair Darling confirmed the widely-trailed idea, which will be half-funded by the sale of the government’s interest in the Channel tunnel and in half with private cash. The bank will [...]
NEWSPAPER VETERAN APPROACHES GUARDIAN WITH A HEAVY HAND March 24, 2010 HEATED words in the media world yesterday after Carolyn McCall’s abrupt defection from the helm of Guardian Media Group to easyJet. Some say McCall won’t be too sorely missed by her former charges at the Guardian, given the messy state of the group’s finances and her recent controversial decision to sell the Manchester Evening News. [...]
iSoft man lands eight-year ban March 22, 2010 IAN Storey, a former iSoft employee, was banned from practising as an accountant for eight years yesterday after providing false information to auditors. The financial controller of the UK-based healthcare software company admitted he had given “false and misleading information to iSoft’s former auditors over a two-year period in relation to a purported iSoft contract” [...]
Ocado sales jump 25pc in IPO warm-up March 22, 2010 OCADO, the online food retailer, has started a “beauty parade” of advisers for a stockmarket flotation after releasing a strong set of results which saw sales surge 25 per cent in a year. Investment banks queuing up to help guide Ocado through a summer initial public offering (IPO) include UBS, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Nomura [...]
Ocado beefs up board for IPO March 21, 2010 Online retailer Ocado will boost its plans to float today when it announces it has reinforced its board with David Grigson, former finance director of Reuters and Ruth Anderson, the former vice-chairman of KPMG UK as non-executive directors. The 10-year-old internet firm will also say gross sales grew by a quarter to £427.3m in the [...]
NOW IT’S HEDGE FUNDS THAT ARE DETERMINED TO DO GOD’S WORK March 21, 2010 ALL this chat about bankers “doing God’s work” is clearly catching on with the rest of the financial community. Across the gusty Atlantic blows word of a hedge fund set up by an Atlanta-based investor, Trebor Chase Brown, who has named his new baby after a particularly pious passage of the Bible. C3:23 Capital – [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 17, 2010 CB Richard Ellis Jonathan De Mello is to join the property group as head of its retail consultancy team, effective from April. De Mello is one of the most respected analysts in the retail sector and joins from the Experian Property Consultancy. His consultancy clients have included the likes of Blackstone Private Equity, Henderson Global [...]
Restaurant and pub sales bounce back March 15, 2010 Top pub and restaurant groups have seen like-for-like sales bounce back, following a dismal January. The 15 major companies participating in the The Coffer Peach Business Tracker, which include Costa Coffee group Whitbread, collectively saw like-for-like sales up 1.3 per cent against the same month last year. Total sales were ahead 3.0 per cent on [...]
These are the judges who will name the stars of 2010 March 14, 2010 CITY A.M. is looking forward to another scoop later this year: our first-ever awards ceremony where we will be celebrating London’s financial and business community and its most succesful individuals and firms. Our newspaper is delighted to be hosting and organising the awards in partnership with Interactive Investor; we are proud that our awards will be [...]