Stagecoach is on track as rail improves August 18, 2010 STAGECOACH yesterday reported a rise in sales at its British and US transport businesses, with its rail operations performing strongly. Stagecoach, operator of the South West Trains franchise in Britain and which last year failed in an attempt to buy rival National Express, said in a statement it had significant undrawn bank facilities. The company’s [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 15, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES PATERNOSTER IS PUT UP FOR SALE Paternoster, the specialist pensions business set up by former Prudential executive Mark Wood, has been put up for sale, with its original backers facing the potential loss of more than half their £500m equity investment. The majority of its backers are seeking an exit from a company [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK August 15, 2010 WEST London gastro pub Paradise By Way of Kensal Green is clearly onto a winner with its new ruse – a private karaoke room for well-oiled customers to sing their hearts out. This group ended up hogging the room for the whole night, paying a hefty £600 for the privilege. They fortified themselves for the [...]
London clubs set for boom season August 12, 2010 LAST year was a boom year for Premier League fortunes in the capital – and I expect this season to be even more successful in some ways. It may be unlikely that we get more than three London clubs finishing in the top four, as we did in May with Chelsea joined by Arsenal and [...]
GOING OUT August 12, 2010 August is the quietest month for clubs and so openings are thin on the ground in the West End. Last week however saw the launch of one of the biggest new venues in London (yes, Camden is in London) with a distinctly African theme. Shaka Zulu (www.ahaka-zulu.com) is Stables Market’s new destination restaurant, nightclub and [...]
Quintain JV sells offices at Pier Walk August 9, 2010 REAL estate investor Quintain has sold its Pier Walk development near Canary Wharf to DekaBank, Germany’s largest open-ended fund manager, for £97.1m. Quintain, which owned the seven-story building at Greenwich Peninsula in a joint venture with Bovis Lend Lease, said the sale represents a six per cent uplift on the property’s valuation in March and [...]
Panic over a new global food crisis is over-egged August 9, 2010 TRADERS have been watching wheat markets breathlessly over the past few days as the grain bounced up and then down. Having gained 8.08 per cent last Thursday – up 80 per cent on prices in the middle of June – the grain plummeted on Friday, wiping out much of Thursday’s gain to end the day [...]
Milner deal the final straw as O’Neill quits Villa helm August 9, 2010 FRUSTRATED Martin O’Neill finally lost patience with Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner yesterday and quit as manager just five days before the start of the new Premier League season. The Northern Irishman brought an abrupt end to his four-year tenure at Villa Park amid speculation the club were about to let midfielder James Milner join [...]
FTSE ends lower as Barclays leads banking sector retreat August 5, 2010 BRITAIN’S top shares closed down yesterday, with Barclays leading banking shares lower after it posted first-half numbers and downbeat US weekly jobless claims data later in the day only adding to the downward pressure. The FTSE 100 closed down 20.38 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5,365.78, having fallen back from a session high of [...]
China crisis as firms quit Aim August 3, 2010 REED SMITH BEFORE the onset of the economic downturn, there seemed to be no end to the approaches being received by London Aim advisers from Chinese companies seeking an admission to Aim. Since then, however, regulatory changes in China concerning overseas listings and the depressed nature of the world equity markets in 2008 and 2009 [...]