WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 16, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BANKS SERVED LIBOR SUBPOENAS Regulators probing alleged manipulation of a key interbank lending rate have focused their demands for information and interviews on five global banks, according to people familiar with the investigation. UBS, Bank of America, Citigroup and Barclays have received subpoenas from US regulators probing the setting of the London interbank [...]
A moratorium on building is certain to choke growth March 16, 2011 IF you are ever tempted to complain that London is too crowded, just reflect that it would be much worse if it were the opposite – deserted. One of the best indicators of how well a city is doing is its population. People move to thriving cities, and leave struggling ones. So many people have [...]
Owners of British technology company Edwards plot stock market offering March 14, 2011 BRITISH vacuum technology producer Edwards Group is plotting a London listing to raise at least £375m. The firm provides chipmakers with vacuum technology needed to make microprocessors, used in products such as Apple’s iPad. Its private equity backers own a combined 90 per cent stake of the firm, which was valued at £1.5bn last year. [...]
West End retail sales take a knock March 13, 2011 High street sales in London’s west end took a hammering in February, falling by 0.5 per cent compared to the same time last year. The figures, released today by the New West End Company, mirror recently reported negative sales data from across the country.
TOP LAWYERS CALL FOR QUOTAS TO BOOST WOMEN IN THE BOARDROOM March 13, 2011 SOME of the UK’s most high-powered female lawyers convened at the Southbank Centre on Saturday afternoon to debate the “chronic inequality” at City law firms. The panel, chaired by Denise Jagger from legal practice Eversheds, which organised the event, contained some of the most high-powered women in the industry (pictured right), including Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, deputy [...]
Shaftesbury raises cash to expand March 3, 2011 LONDON landlord Shaftesbury yesterday tapped investors for £102m in a share placement to help fund acquisitions as more assets come up for sale in its core West End market. The real estate investor, which owns more than 500 shops, restaurants and bars in the West End, said it had placed 22.7m new ordinary shares at [...]
A twenty-first century wine firm, bringing Burgundy’s reds to China February 27, 2011 What is it like to work for a firm with two and a half centuries of tradition at your back? Hew Blair says it “drives you forward,” and his young broking manager Tom Jenkins agrees. The wine merchant Justerini and Brooks, the first wine firm to receive the royal warrant, has provided wines for every [...]
London’s hidden property gems February 24, 2011 ROTHERHITHE, SE16 The renaissance of this former dock has gone largely unnoticed, and house prices are generally cheaper than surrounding areas. Carl Davenport, of estate agents Chesterton Humberts, says Rotherhithe is the “overlooked neighbour” of Tower Bridge. “Prices are in many cases cheaper by up to 20 per cent on a like to like basis,” [...]
US sales data down despite jobless claims fall February 24, 2011 New US claims for jobless aid fell last week, hinting at an improvement in the labour market, but declines in new home sales and orders for a range of factory goods in January showed the economy still faced headwinds. Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 391,000, the Labor [...]
House swapping and geopolitcal disaster February 23, 2011 BEFORE I KNEW YOU BY AMANDA BROOKFIELD PENGUIN, £6.99 MID-Atlantic at 35,000 feet, two couples pass in opposite directions. They are on the seemingly perfect credit crunch vacation, an international house swap with suitably affluent, never-to-be-seen hosts. Sophie and Andrew Chapman leave their Victorian family home in south-west London, their teenage daughters and Sophie’s recent [...]