Cafe Rouge set to be offloaded to Apollo funds March 17, 2014 VULTURE fund Apollo Global Management is on the verge of wresting control of the struggling owner behind popular restaurant brands Cafe Rouge and Strada. Apollo, which buys the loans of struggling firms, has snapped up a substantial portion of the debt in the restaurant’s parent company Tragus Group, which is owned by Blackstone. The purchase [...]
City Matters: How evolving City offices are positioning for the next big tech breakthrough March 17, 2014 WE ALL want the next Google, Facebook or Twitter to come from London. The same is true for major success stories from other industries. This can only happen, however, if we ensure the capital has the right mix of space to enable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to grow and realise their full potential. The [...]
Sale of Pizza Express could raise £900m for private equity owner March 13, 2014 PIZZA Express is being groomed for a sale by its private equity owners in a move which could also see the sale of stablemate eateries Ask and Zizzi. The popular chain, which is controlled by a company called Gondola Group, is working with Goldman Sachs and Rothschild to explore either a float or outright sale [...]
Kelly Brook’s new place is Mahiki for City workers March 11, 2014 STEAM & RYE 147 Leadenhall St EC3V 4QT Tel: 020 7444 9960 FOOD Two Stars VALUE Three Stars ATMOSPHERE Two Stars Cost for two with drinks: £105 STEAM & Rye’s website features pages and pages of photographs of Tarquins and Lotties drinking cocktails and having what looks like a bloody good time. Here’s Tarquin posing [...]
Fancy a brew? Annabel Palmer talks craft beer with Draft House’s Charlie McVeigh March 10, 2014 Draft House founder Charlie McVeigh talks about the perils of the hospitality industry, and how he’s taking advantage of Britain’s real ale renaissance A CRAFT beer revolution has taken hold in Britain. Consumption of independently-brewed beer rose by 22.3m pints to 415m pints in 2012, according to the Society of Independent Brewers. And figures suggest [...]
Has the father of Bitcoin finally been found? March 6, 2014 THE RECLUSIVE founder of Bitcoin was yesterday revealed as a 64-year-old Japanese-American man living in California, according to Newsweek – but the man himself denied his involvement in the digital currency. “I’m not involved in Bitcoin,” the man called Satoshi Nakamoto – the name used on the original documents that established the cryptocurrency in 2009 – told [...]
People too scared to save because they don’t trust politicians March 5, 2014 BRITAIN remains in a savings crisis. A shocking 19 per cent of the public have no savings at all, up from 17 per cent last year, and the average stash put away for a rainy day is a miserable £10,208. The total number of people who felt able to add to their savings actually dropped [...]
City Boy at Large: Can a booze-free spa break convert our cynical urbanite? March 2, 2014 He may be more at home in the Emirates Stadium but the Bedford Lodge gives our reporter a well needed break WHEN someone says “spa”, my initial word association-style reaction is to think of the Belgian Grand Prix. The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, to give it its full name, is a favourite on the Formula One [...]
Sales from the riverbank February 27, 2014 The future landmarks set to transform London’s river and make living Thameside even cooler LONDON is finally starting to follow the example of its European neighbours by making the most of its meandering river. Luxury developments are beginning to pop up all along the riverbank, proving that the place to be seen in the next [...]
Furnishings designed to impress February 27, 2014 Melissa York talks to Karen Howes about creating riverside luxury HOW DO you please the buyer that has everything? This is the question Karen Howes has to answer every day. She’s the co-founder and chief executive officer of Taylor Howes, an interior design firm that specialises in furnishing the homes of the uber-rich. “Every element [...]