London retail sales growth slows down February 14, 2010 RETAIL sales in London grew at their slowest rate for five years as the stronger pound made the capital less attractive for overseas shoppers. Sales were 3.5 per cent up on the previous January, according to a report from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). In January 2009 sales figures grew by 6.5 per cent compared [...]
Politicians begin to focus on real City issues February 14, 2010 Fresh from leading a City delegation to UAE and Qatar last week and before I head out to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia tomorrow, I see that the debate on reform of the financial services industry is slowly beginning to shift. Talk of a global bank tax is rife following Gordon Brown’s declaration that he expects [...]
We will soon find out whether the Bank is right February 14, 2010 AMERICAN markets are closed today for Presidents Day but that does obviously not equate to nap time for London traders. With an exceptionally busy economic calendar, this should be a very active week for everybody in the UK. Some of the big, potentially market moving releases include consumer prices, employment numbers, retail sales and the [...]
ETFs are ideal for commercial property plays February 10, 2010 ONE of the biggest casualties of the financial crisis was the commercial property sector – capital values slumped 45 per cent in the UK, according to the Investment Property Databank (IPD). The recession also saw occupier demand contract, which drove up vacancy rates and forced down rents. But since the summer, we have seen an [...]
British Land beats banks’ expectations February 9, 2010 BRITISH Land has boosted confidence in London’s “rocky” property market by delivering strong third quarter results. In the final three months of 2009 the value of the developer’s assets in the City rose by 8.2 per cent to £2.46bn and its net asset value per share by 18 per cent to 438p – substantially outperforming [...]
MCR February 8, 2010 Geoff Bouchier has been appointed administrator for Ethel Austin. He is a partner with MCR. He has led many of MCR’s major insolvency assignments, including a number of its high profile appointments within the financial services, travel and retail sectors. In recent months he has worked as joint administrator for high street retailer Borders and [...]
Polo Ralph Lauren’s Duffy jumps on board at Celtic February 8, 2010 LIFE-LONG Celtic fan Brian Duffy has joined the board of the Scottish Premier League club as an independent non-executive director. London-based Duffy is group president, Europe, of the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation. He joined Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation in 2003 as president and chief operating officer, Europe, from the Sara Lee Corporation where he held [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 7, 2010 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS Christine Cross, a former Tesco director, has joined the accountancy firm as chief retail adviser. Cross currently holds non-executive directorships at High Street retailer Next and Empire, the second largest Canadian grocery chain. She was at Tesco between 1989 and 2003, latterly as business development director. She is also currently a retail adviser to [...]
UK gives Santander a boost February 4, 2010 The UK operations of Spanish banking giant Santander saw full-year profits leap 30 per cent in 2009 as the group grew its share of the mortgage market and signed up more than expected new customers to its bank accounts. Pre-tax profits hit £1.54bn for the year to 31 December with new acquisitions Bradford & Bingley [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 3, 2010 GLG Partners The asset management group has appointed Raffaele Costa as its new co-head of marketing. Costa, 40, has worked at GLG since it was founded in 1995, when he joined as a portfolio manager specialising in US and European equities. Prior to that, he was at Goldman Sachs. Costa will now work alongside co-chief executive [...]