London Oxford Street to get new retail space near Tottenham Court Road’s Elizabeth Line with £70m GPE swoop August 18, 2023 London’s West End could be getting a new retail and office space, following the purchase of King Sloane Properties by Great Portland Estates for £70m. The acquisition means GPE get their hands on the freehold interests at 16/19 Soho Square, 29.43 Oxford Street 7 Falconberg Mews, from Belgravia & Chelsea Property Services Limited. Worth around [...]
The Square Mile and Me: Jim Wood-Smith on impostor syndrome, City shenanigans and a birthday redundancy August 17, 2023 Our weekly feature digs into the careers of the City’s great and good: this week, Hawksmoor Investment Management’s Jim Wood-Smith takes us down a most eventful memory lane What was your first job?I never did the Saturday paper round or the gap year saving-the-sloth thing. I was classically middle class and went to work for [...]
Interactive Investor founder Sherry Coutu on her next big challenge – and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro August 17, 2023 As a decade-spanning serial entrepreneur, it seems only too on the nose that Sherry Coutu likes to spend her spare time climbing mountains. When we speak, the founder of the retail investment stalwart Interactive Investor has just returned from a jaunt up Rinjani volcano in Indonesia for the third time. She’s gearing up to take [...]
Interactive Investor founder Sherry Coutu: entrepreneurship, climbing mountains and why Sunak’s maths plans don’t quite add up August 17, 2023 Interactive Investor founder Sherry Coutu on education, climbing mountains and entrepreneurship
Square Mile and Me: Jim Wood-Smith on all-day breakfasts, birthday redundancies and why the City needs to watch Monty Python August 17, 2023 Every week we ask the financial services industry’s great and good to delve into memory lane. This week, it’s Hawksmoor Investment Management’s Market Commentator and Head of Climate Transition Jim Wood-Smith who gives us an insight into a City left behind in more ways than one… What was your first job? I never did the [...]
UK high streets risk becoming ‘wastelands’ with 15,000 shops to shutter by 2025 August 16, 2023 Up to 15,000 shops could disappear from the UK’s high streets by the end of 2025, a new report has warned, as more and more consumers choose to online over in-store shopping. Data from the Local Data Company showed that between 2018 and 2022, over 41,000 stores opened and 79,000 stores closed, resulting in 37,700 [...]
‘The last thing commuters need’: London business groups slam rail fare hike August 16, 2023 London business groups have slammed a significant government hike in rail ticket fares set to hit commuters next March. The Department for Transport (DfT) has committed to ensuring any fare increase falls below the nine per cent rise in the Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation measure, announced by the ONS on Wednesday morning. Regulated rail [...]
‘Disastrous’: London airports slam UK Government’s tourist tax August 16, 2023 Bosses at three leading UK airports have warned the government that its so-called ‘tourist tax’ is already making Britain a less appealing tourist destination. Senior figures at London City, Heathrow and Gatwick argued that the return of airside VAT-free shopping would be critical for the sector to finally shake-off Covid-19 and keep pace with international [...]
Harvey Nichols boss Manju Malhotra exits after three years August 15, 2023 The boss of Harvey Nichols, Manju Malhotra, will step down from her role as head of the luxury retailer. Malhotra, who led the business for three years, will temporarily be replaced by Pearson Poon the son of Dickson Poon who has owned Harvey Nicholls since the 1990’s. Poon, who currently serves as executive director has [...]
FTSE 100 close: Wage growth fuels rate fears as M&S soars and B&M drops on Wilko speculation August 15, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 ended Tuesday down more than 1.6 per cent, as record-breaking wage growth fueled speculation of a 15th straight Bank of England rate hike. The capital’s blue-chip index was down 1.63 per cent by close of play to to 7,384.94, weighed down by listed investment firm Abrdn, down three per cent, alongside Pheonix [...]