WPP takes a stronger hold of its Russian media investment firms January 13, 2014 GLOBAL advertising giant WPP has taken a majority stake in its WVI Group joint venture, comprised of Russian media investment businesses including GroupM, MediaCom and global marketing communications company JWT. WPP will hold an 80 per cent stake in the WVI Group following the deal, with an agreement to purchase the remaining 20 per cent [...]
Chinese holidaymakers lead the charge over Christmas January 13, 2014 Wealthy foreign visitors helped keep Britain’s tills ringing over Christmas with spending up a record 40 per cent on the previous year. Chinese tourists led the charge, with spending up 52 per cent to around £741 per transaction in December, according to figures out today by tax-free shopping specialist Global Blue. While China accounted for [...]
UK car industry racing back as Jaguar sales rise January 12, 2014 JAGUAR Land Rover smashed its annual sales record in 2013, helped by the soaring global demand for luxury British cars that has revived the fortunes of the UK motor manufacturing industry. The company, which sells 85 per cent of its cars abroad, sold 425,006 vehicles last year, a rise of 19 per cent. More than [...]
How the EU has used the environment as a protectionist weapon January 12, 2014 THE EU has long claimed a reputation as a promoter of free trade – for breaking down boundaries, and allowing capital and goods to flow across borders without hindrance. But protectionism hasn’t disappeared; it’s just taken on a more subtle form. The EU has been using the environment as a trade weapon. Late last year, [...]
The energy helping Big Oil lead the international charge January 10, 2014 With independent oil companies dominating in the US, Big Oil (the biggest five or six global oil companies) is now "leading the international charge", becoming "more and more relevant to mainstream investors", says investment bank JP Morgan. And it's unconventional energy that's helping Big Oil lock down the most material opportunities, set to take up [...]
The dovish consensus is wrong: It is time for interest rate hikes January 9, 2014 ECONOMISTS seem to lurch from one dangerous fad to another. In the late 1980s, most supported the European exchange rate mechanism, which blew up spectacularly; in the 1990s, many supported UK membership of the euro, which would have been a disaster; during the 2000s, few saw the bubble coming and most missed the credit and [...]
Former Kazakh banker set to be extradited January 9, 2014 A FORMER banker accused of embezzling up to $6bn (£3.6bn) from his employer should be extradited to Ukraine or Russia to face fraud charges, a French court ruled yesterday. Mukhtar Ablyazov, who was chairman of Kazakh bank BTA, had been in hiding since being sentenced to prison for contempt of court by an English judge [...]
Letters to the Editor – 10/01 – Pensions, Turkey’s woes, Best of Twitter January 9, 2014 Pensions [Re: Our pension system is broken. We must tear it up and start again, yesterday] Hindsight may be pointless, but if our pensions system had been ringfenced and taken out of the political arena years ago, we could have avoided the taxation devastation (taxing dividends from investment in funds), and perceived unfairness (higher rate [...]
Slight slowdown for emerging markets as new year kicks off January 6, 2014 THE RATE of growth in some of the world’s major developing economies slowed slightly as 2013 came to an end, with services lagging behind. HSBC’s emerging markets index dropped to 51.6 in December, down from 52.1 in November, suggesting weak growth in the developing world. The economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) all posted a [...]
Letters to the Editor – 06/01 – Gold speculation, Payday lending, Best of Twitter January 5, 2014 Gold speculation [Re: Here’s why Capital Economics thinks gold will bounce back this year, Thursday] Buying gold at current prices is speculation, and not just over the potential removal of Indian import restrictions. Its price tells you about fear in an economy at any given point – and there just isn’t that fear around that [...]