Graff Diamond’s Hong Kong adventure ends in disaster May 31, 2012 IN an ideal world, ahead of the Jubilee weekend, we would now be looking forward to the listing of Graff Diamonds shares in London. Graff’s history is London through and through. Founder Laurence Graff started as a jewellery apprentice here in 1950 and then 12 years later opened his first two stores in the capital. [...]
The Facebook debacle deserves a reaction from London May 28, 2012 THE controversies surrounding the historic $104bn flotation of Facebook in the US should have reminded all of us that although the New York financial markets may currently be the place to go for technology flotations, they are not infallible. What is disappointing is that with so much wrangling about how the float was handled, very [...]
Ocado points to fresh growth as revenues surge May 23, 2012 ONLINE supermarket Ocado yesterday announced an acceleration in sales growth for the second quarter, raising hopes that the firm has overcome last year’s distribution problems that damaged consumer confidence. Shares in the company, whose range includes products supplied by upmarket grocer Waitrose, rose 6.8 per cent after it said sales in the quarter to 13 [...]
Ocado sales growth accelerates May 23, 2012 Online British supermarket Ocado posted an acceleration in sales growth in its second quarter, raising hopes it has got to grips with bottlenecks at its distribution centre that led to a string of profit downgrades last year. Shares in Ocado, whose range includes products supplied by upmarket grocer Waitrose jumped 6.8 per cent on Wednesday [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 22, 2012 Artesian Solutions Dr Steve Garnett has been appointed chairman of the brand surveillance software firm. He is currently chairman, Europe at salesforce.com. Garnett started his career at Oracle, prior to its initial public offering, where he was director of UK sales and vice president of European marketing and alliances. He has also served as vice [...]
Promethean sees sales plunge April 18, 2012 INTERACTIVE whiteboard firm Promethean World yesterday revealed a dramatic sales drop in its key North American market, causing its share price to tumble a further 20 per cent. Blaming “challenging market conditions”, the interim management statement showed revenues of £35.9m for the first quarter of 2012, a 14.4 per cent decline on the same period [...]
CITY VIEWS DO YOU SHOP FOR GROCERIES ONLINE? April 18, 2012 LUCY WALLCRAFT FIDELITY Sometimes I shop online for my groceries, but not always. When I do it’s because it is the most convenient way to get what I need. I mainly use Tesco if I shop online because it is the easiest to use.” SHARON GURNETT MCGRIGORS I don’t personally shop online for groceries. I’m [...]
OCADO CHIEFS FORFEIT BONUSES March 22, 2012 EXECS at online grocer Ocado will not receive a bonus this year, after the firm failed to generate a pre-tax profit. Chief executive Tim Steiner’s (above) total pay has slumped 38 per cent to £354,000 for the year to November 2011 as the company grew sales but suffered supply problems. Finance chief Andrew Bracey, who [...]
Sainsbury’s closes gap in online sales March 12, 2012 SAINSBURY’S has claimed to have become the second-biggest online grocer after its orders topped 165,000 a week. The supermarket said a 20 per cent rise in orders per week, with an annualised turnover of £750m, makes its website the fastest growing online grocery business. Overall, Sainsbury’s still ranks third behind Tesco and Asda, but the [...]
London needs somebody to gamble on an IPO March 5, 2012 WITH the Edwards vacuum technology company heading for a £1bn flotation in the US and Mayfair-based jewellery retailer Graff also preferring a Hong Kong listing to braving the UK new issue markets, only one thing is certain: the London IPO market is in a pretty bad way. Bankers that I’ve been speaking to say they [...]