…as bank holiday gives shops in the West End a huge boost June 13, 2010 TWO strong bank holidays helped push up West End retail sales 5.8 per cent year-on-year in May, according to the New West End Company, which represents vendors in the area. Despite a rainy Saturday, shoppers spent £38m on Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street on Monday 31 May alone. The number of people visiting [...]
Jon Moulton’s Better Capital will raise £67m in LSE listing June 10, 2010 JON Moulton’s Better Capital will raise £67m as it steps up to the main London Stock Exchange market, just six months after listing on Aim. The group hopes to attract more investors attracted by the stricter regulatory stipulations in place for main market-listed firms. It will issue 64.3m new shares at 105p each – a [...]
FCPT agrees to a merger with UKCPT June 9, 2010 TWO of Britain’s property trusts have announced a proposal to merge creating the sixth largest trust of its kind in the UK in a union valued at £1.6bn. Board members of F&C Commercial Property Trust (FCPT) and UK Commercial Property Trust (UKCPT) have agreed on merger terms that are expected to entice new investors. The [...]
Barrick Gold joins the FTSE 100 June 9, 2010 THE updated FTSE 100 list was announced last night, with African firm Barrick Gold and Indian oil and gas giant Essar Energy both muscling into the big time. The London Stock Exchange and embattled holiday group Thomas Cook both took the plunge into the FTSE 250. The additions to the list makes the FTSE 100 [...]
FTSE reshuffle sees new floats dominate the index June 8, 2010 TOUR operator Thomas Cook is set to lose its place in the FTSE 100 Index following the latest reshuffle of blue-chip stocks. The firm’s shares have fallen by a third in the past three months as the travel industry copes with the recession and Iceland’s volcanic ash cloud. The result of the reshuffle will be [...]
Ash cloud hits airport sales at WH Smith June 8, 2010 WH Smith yesterday blamed disruption caused by the the Icelandic volcanco ash cloud for denting sales during the 14 weeks to 5 June. The company’s 570 high street stores saw like-for-like sales fall four per cent in the period. The group said like-for-like sales in the third quarter had fallen by four per cent at [...]
Capital Drilling makes a triumphant start to trading on the LSE official list June 7, 2010 EMERGING markets-focused mining group Capital Drilling yesterday saw its market value jump by over £6m on its first day of trading on the main list of the London Stock Exchange, as investors snapped up the stock. The firm listed at 61.5p a share but rose over the course of the day to close at 66p, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 6, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES CROP SQUEEZE TO LIFT ORANGE JUICE PRICE The price of orange juice will rise in coming months as Brazil’s citrus crop, the world’s largest, sees its worst harvest in seven years because of bad weather and diseases, according to Cutrale of Brazil, the leading orange juice producer. Orange juice is a $20bn industry [...]
Businesses tell government to avoid knee-jerk tax hikes June 6, 2010 BUSINESS organisations will today call on the government to avoid knee-jerk tax rises in the emergency Budget later this month. In a report published today, City lobby group London First warns the UK is losing its reputation as a business-friendly location thanks to a series of surprise tax rises. John Dickie, director or strategy and [...]
Applications to build sink in downturn June 6, 2010 APPLICATIONS for permission to build new commercial property developments plunged sharply over the past year, as a number of high-profile developers succumbed to the downturn and demand for office and retail space faltered. In the past year, 21,729 commercial property planning applications were lodged in England, down 15 per cent from 25,600 the previous year, [...]