Tennis ace Murray buys a hotel in plan to repay his home town February 25, 2013 BRITAIN’S No1 tennis player Andy Murray has splashed out £1.8m to acquire a hotel in Dunblane, the planned development of which he hopes will provide a major boost to the economy in his home town. The Cromlix House Hotel, where his brother Jamie married wife Alejandra Gutierrez in 2010, is a Victorian Mansion, which Murray [...]
Symphony hits the right notes February 25, 2013 EMERGING market money manager Symphony International, which taps into Asia’s growing consumer spending, yesterday said it boosted fund value by almost 12 per cent last quarter due to surging revenues from its companies. Symphony, based in Hong Kong, invests in a vast array of consumer staples across Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, including hotels and [...]
Cinven gears up for £1bn float of annuity outfit February 17, 2013 CINVEN, the private equity business, is firming up plans for a £1bn float of its annuity business Partnership amid a renaissance in London’s capital markets. The mid-market buyout shop, which also owns PizzaExpress and ASK Italian restaurants, is understood to be pushing for an initial public offering (IPO) of Partnership in the second half of [...]
A cynic’s solution to not loving Valentine’s day February 12, 2013 City A.M.’s cocktail expert Call ME a cynic, but there is only one thing worse than being single on Valentine’s Day and that is being forced to sit with your significant other in a bar or restaurant, spending hand over fist in a vain attempt to quantify your affections. And every year the expectations for [...]
Byron Hamburgers under the hammer for upwards of £100m February 10, 2013 BYRON, the upmarket hamburger chain dotted around London’s square mile, is being touted to would-be buyers with a price tag of between £100m and £120m, after the chain boomed to healthy adjusted profits over the last six months. The outfit, which is part of a stable of restaurants including PizzaExpress, Ask Italian and Soho institution [...]
STK does a belter of a rib eye – if you can stand the club atmosphere February 6, 2013 Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie once said: “All vowels are fascist, man, everyone knows that”. It’s a sentiment that obviously chimed with the owners of US steakhouse chain STK, which has just arrived at the ME London hotel. This isn’t just any old steakhouse, though. Oh no, this is a “female friendly” steakhouse. Female friendly. [...]
Developer of BBC Television Centre sets out masterplan February 5, 2013 THE BBC Television Centre in White City is to be opened up to the public for the first time, under its new guise as a site for hotels, flats and offices. Developers unveiled plans yesterday to turn the landmark building into a mixed-use scheme including 1,000 new homes, a hotel and offices as well as [...]
Fishmongers’ company buys Tower Vaults February 4, 2013 THE FISHMONGERS’ Company, one of the City of London’s ancient livery companies, has bought the long leasehold interest in Tower Vaults for just over £12.5m. The 46,500 square foot site next to the Tower of London, has 12 shops and restaurants including Costa Coffee and McDonalds. Cluttons acted on the sale to the 700-year-old guild.
No Waitrose for Sir Terry’s wife February 3, 2013 FORMER Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy was in charge of the playlist yesterday, getting listeners dancing in the aisles by mixing folk with Handel’s Messiah on Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs. Sir Terry began his Tesco career as a shelf-stacker in Wandsworth and rose to become chief executive of the grocer from 1997 to 2011. [...]
It’s Davos, but not as you know it February 3, 2013 DESPITE being a 30-something supposed grown-up, I must confess to still suffering from the occasional nightmare. While on duty as a night editor of this newspaper, for example, my sleep can be disturbed by a recurring dream in which I’m culpable for printing over 130,000 front page headlines of “UK ECOMONY DIPS AGAIN” (yes, reread [...]