McDonald’s cautious as tough economy eats into food sales July 22, 2013 MCDONALD’S yesterday said it expects the rest of the year to be tough for fast food sales, after posting a four per cent rise in net income to almost $1.4bn (£911m) for the second quarter. Shares in the world’s biggest restaurant chain lost 2.7 per cent yesterday after chief executive Don Thompson said “the informal [...]
Skanska wins contract for The Scalpel July 22, 2013 CONSTRUCTION firm Skanska has won the contract to build the 190m tall office building known as The Scalpel. The Nordic firm, which has also built the Gherkin and the Heron Tower, is due to start work immediately on the Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) designed high-rise, with completion set for early 2017. The building, at the [...]
McDonald’s revenues miss expectations as European sales remain suppressed July 22, 2013 McDonald’s has reported second quarter revenues of $7.08bn, or $1.38 per share, missing analyst expectations of $1.41 per share (release). Year-on-year, second quarter revenues were up 2.4 per cent, and earnings per share rose by seven per cent. Net profits were up five per cent to $1.40bn. In the US, comparable sales were up one [...]
Mayfair mews pays out for property mogul July 21, 2013 VINCENT Tchenguiz, the property tycoon wrapped up in a legal battle with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has had one piece of good news of late – the mogul has sold his Mayfair home for almost £17m. The eight-bedroom property on Lees Place in Mayfair is close to Annabel’s private members club and only five [...]
South America’s capital of glamour July 21, 2013 With its sprawling sandy beaches, iconic landmarks and buzzing atmosphere, Rio de Janeiro is in a league of its own, says Gabriel O’Rorke WITH the World Cup and the Olympics on the horizon, Brazil is preparing to become the focus of the world’s attention. One city that is used to the limelight is Rio de [...]
Greece’s latest austerity measures could push government over the edge July 18, 2013 The narrow approval of fiscal reforms demanded by troika lenders in the Greek parliament late last night will put further pressure on Antonis Samaras’s government, potentially resulting in early elections. Robin Bew, chief economist and editorial director of the Economist Intelligence Unit, said today: #Greece agrees civil service layoffs to keep bailout alive. But politics [...]
Walkie-Talkie awaits more calls July 17, 2013 PROPERTY giant Land Securities said yesterday that it expects the Walkie-Talkie skyscraper to be two thirds let by its completion next year, in a sign of growing confidence in the market. The City office market has seen a pick-up in leasing activity in the past year as companies who had previously shelved plans rushed to [...]
La Casa Negra Shoreditch restaurant review: achingly hip Mexican food with added attitude July 17, 2013 Street food. That’s a thing. Street food! Isn’t it great? It reminds me of that time I was travelling in Guatemala, and some indigenous people were just, you know, making food in the street, and it was all, like, totally authentic. Except that never happened. I’ve forced down slimy noodles in Tokyo; binned inedible grey [...]
Plans for £160m new Smithfield Quarter given the green-light July 16, 2013 PLANS to turn part of Smithfield market into a new public quarter with offices, shops and restaurants, was given the all clear yesterday. The City of London Corporation voted in favour of Henderson Global Investors’ £160m mixed-use scheme called the Smithfield Quarter, despite campaigns against altering the 150 year-old site. The McAslan + Partners-proposed development [...]
Google pays $1.3bn for sat-nav app Waze June 14, 2013 GOOGLE has pipped both Apple and Facebook to buy Waze, an Israeli social mapping service popular amongst commuters. Waze, which has almost 50m members, uses a smartphone’s location data to improve its maps and create real-time traffic information, allowing drivers to take the fastest route to a destination. It is now expected that Google will [...]