Forget Dubai’s woes: Iran is the real risk November 29, 2009 BANKS have written down $3 trillion or so over the past couple of years. We should therefore keep the crisis that is engulfing Dubai in some sort of perspective. The total debts of the Dubai government are around $80bn and nobody is suggesting that more than a small proportion will need to be written off. [...]
Think inside the Square: why the City is a top spot to buy a home November 26, 2009 IF YOU’RE looking for the ultimate Tube-busting pied a terre, the Square Mile can’t be bettered for history, beauty and – of course – convenience. Other financial centres are not exactly places you’d want to live: tightly packed with skyscrapers and fumes, they have a sterile, uninhabitable feel (just think of mid-town New York or [...]
It is time for Asian economies to grow up November 24, 2009 MORE than ever, I’m convinced that a combination of the West’s ultra-loose monetary policies and Asia’s juvenile reaction to the tidal wave of cheap money this has created are fuelling a new bubble. So I was fascinated to read a series of reports yesterday arguing a very similar point. They are from HSBC’s global research [...]
HomeServe adds more customers November 24, 2009 HOMESERVE yesterday posted a higher first-half profit from core operations, aided by growth in customer and policy numbers, and said it would not be affected by the recent floods in north west England. HomeServe, which provides cover for a range of emergencies such as broken boilers and overflowing washing machines, also said it was confident [...]
CBI boss Richard Lambert can see early signs of economic recovery November 19, 2009 THE worst is over for the British economy. At least, that was the message from Richard Lambert, the Confederation of Business Industry’s (CBI) thoughtful director-general, when we meet. “We have finally hit the deck,” he tells me, leaning forward. “Things are a lot better now than in the first quarter of this year. Where we [...]
Guy Hands: West faces zero growth unless bad debts are written off November 18, 2009 THE private equity industry is on a collision course with the banks amid calls for hundreds of billions in leveraged loans to be restructured to avoid Japanese-style economic stagnation. Outspoken private equity boss Guy Hands yesterday accused banks – particularly the bailed out institutions – of failing to act on bad debts to avoid admitting [...]
Crossrail’s chairman says the 16bn project is set to push ahead in 2010 November 17, 2009 The last time I saw Terry Morgan was a year ago at 2am, underneath Leicester Square. Then he was the Tube Lines chief executive and was standing on the underground tracks between Leicester Square and Covent Garden stations, telling a couple of engineers exactly what he thought of their work. This meeting could not be [...]
Another boss to step down from TNK-BP November 11, 2009 BILLIONAIRE Mikhail Fridman yesterday said that he is likely to step down as acting chief executive of BP’s Russian joint venture TNK-BP, which will appoint a new permanent chief. The void at the helm of TNK-BP is the result of a row over strategy and control that erupted last year between BP and the four [...]
SilverWind blows into West End as veteran brokers join forces November 11, 2009 New West End-based stockbroker SilverWind has opened for trading, with ex-Lite Financial trader Darren Sinden joining its ranks. SilverWind is being led by ex-ODL Securities head of capital markets Andrew Rowland, with the former vice chairman of ABN AMRO Menno de Jager leading the board. It will offer institutional and corporate clients a comprehensive range [...]
Great Portland sees its office valuations jump November 11, 2009 GREAT Portland Estates yesterday signalled a tentative return to health for the commercial real estate sector as it revealed a jump in valuations over the past quarter and announced a lucrative new West End property deal. Great Portland, which in May tapped investors for £560m in a rights issue, said its properties were valued at [...]