A taste of Mother Russia in a Knightsbridge salon August 13, 2012 RESTAURANT MARI VANNA 116 Knightsbridge, SW1X 7PJ el: 020 7225 3122 FOOD ** SERVICE **** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £55 There are two facts you need to know about Mari Vanna. One: it’s done up like a Russian babushka’s dining room – albeit one with a more than a dollop of Tsarist [...]
E.ON profit rise shows worst could be over August 7, 2012 Cheaper gas supplies helped boost first-half profit at E.ON signalling the worst could be over for Germany’s biggest power company whose earnings were ravaged last year by the government’s decision to exit nuclear power. E.ON said on today first-half earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) would be around €6.7bn up from £5.3bn a [...]
Telecity bets on Russian growth as shares jump to record value August 6, 2012 DATA services firm Telecity beat expectations yesterday and announced an investment in Finland, a stepping stone to the growing Russian internet market. The company, which provides carrier-neutral internet connections, said revenues in the first half of the year jumped 22.4 per cent due to a rise in data-intensive cloud computing systems. Shares leapt by seven [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 5, 2012 AXA Wealth Andrew Smith has been appointed chief operating officer of the wealth management firm’s Elevate investment platform. He joins from Nucleus, where he was responsible for its platform design and build. Smith has also held senior roles at Logica and Thomson Reuters. Mazars The advisory firm has appointed Phil Verity to the position of [...]
Shakes-Drayton and Grabarz are my Brit track and field tips August 2, 2012 TODAY marks the start of the athletics and I can’t wait. This week has highlighted that Team GB are under real pressure to perform and achieve. Before these Olympics there was a lot of hype about winning medals here and there, but maybe the bar was set a bit too high. It’s going to take [...]
I Against I is a formulaic, humourless crime flop August 2, 2012 FILM I AGAINST I Cert 15 | By Steve Dinneen ** THE British crime drama hasn’t fared very well since the glory days of The Long Good Friday; all Danny Dyer romps and hackneyed mockney geezers. I Against I does little to redress the balance. Co-directors Mark Cripps, David Ellison and James Marquand set out [...]
SocGen joins euro banking rout as profits take another beating August 1, 2012 PROFITS plunged at French bank Societe Generale as the bank was hit by losses on asset sales, a hybrid debt buyback and writedowns on the value of US and Russian units over the second quarter, it reported yesterday, as well as wider damage from the Eurozone crisis. Second quarter profits fell 42 per cent to [...]
DEALMAKER OF THE YEAR August 1, 2012 INVESTMENT bankers have had a difficult year, with London’s IPO market virtually closed, and M&A deals few and far between. Our fourth short-list for the third annual City A.M. awards, though, highlights some superb individual performances in such difficult markets. Jonathan Rowley, for example, was on at least three M&A deals in just one week [...]
SocGen profit slumps August 1, 2012 French bank Societe Generale reported a worse-than-expected 42 per cent drop in second-quarter earnings today, hit by one-off write-downs on US fund unit TCW and Russian subsidiary Rosbank ROSBR.UL. France’s second largest listed bank is more than halfway through a plan to slash debt and sell assets at its corporate and investment bank. It is [...]
Phelps finishes first to break all records as star in the East continues to blaze July 31, 2012 AT THE AQUATICS CENTRE SWIMMER Michael Phelps thanked his American team-mates after he became the most decorated Olympian of all time last night, as controversial Chinese teen sensation Ye Shiwen claimed her second gold of London 2012. An emphatic victory in the 4x200m freestyle saw Phelps, 27, surpass Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina’s 18 Olympic medals, [...]