Consultancy from the business commandos March 20, 2011 DAMIAN McKinney rings me from his boat off the coast of Guadalupe. This ex-Royal Marine commando turned entrepreneur tells me that he has always wanted to have a video conference from a boat, wearing a shirt and tie, pretending he’s in the office. “This is close enough,” he laughs. After a 20-year military career in [...]
Changing times: moving on from Mayfair March 17, 2011 PRICES of the Monopoly board favourite Mayfair, as well as other prime favourites, have rocketed to near 2007 levels (see graph below), leading to the emergence of alternative investment hotspots. Marylebone is being hailed as the new Mayfair, with residential favourites Pimlico, Hampstead and Fulham hot on its heels. Mayfair prices have been drastically pushed [...]
Topaz eyes a London listing to raise £311m March 16, 2011 DUBAI-based oilfield services firm Topaz Energy and Marine plans to raise $500m (£311m) in a London listing. The firm, which is part of Oman’s Renaissance Services, is likely to power into the FTSE 250 if the listing is successful, with a market capitalisation of $1.7bn. Topaz has set a price range of 170p per share [...]
TNK-BP hits out at BP after Rosneft compromise flops March 13, 2011 BP’S RUSSIAN partners ramped up their dispute over the firm’s Arctic exploration plans yesterday after a TNK-BP board meeting at the weekend failed to reach a compromise. TNK-BP, a 50:50 joint venture between BP and the Russian AAR consortium, criticised BP-nominated directors’ conduct during Saturday’s meeting in Paris as “not representative of constructive and reasonable [...]
PARTY HOPPING AS TCHENGUIZ TWO SAY THE CANNES SHOW MUST GO ON March 10, 2011 THE Capitalist was amused to see that the statement made on behalf of the Tchenguiz brothers following their release without charge on Wednesday night made it clear the pair are “free to travel”. Why so critical that the property tycoons, who were arrested by the Serious Fraud Office and held for 12 hours in connection [...]
THE PARTY’S OVER FOR TCHENGUIZ BROTHERS March 9, 2011 THEY came, they saw, they conquered – and then the Tchenguiz brothers were arrested by the Serious Fraud Office yesterday morning in connection with the collapse of the Kaupthing Icelandic bank. The dramatic raid at the property developers’ Mayfair HQ has been the talk of the MIPIM property fair at Cannes, where the brothers were [...]
WHAT’S NEW IN GADGETS AND TECHNOLOGY March 9, 2011 SPOTIFY HITS THE MILLION USERS MARK While Charlie Sheen has made tech headlines as well as tabloid ones for drumming up a million Twitter followers in just 24 hours, music streaming service Spotify has taken a bit longer to reach its own seven-figure landmark – a million paying subscribers. The company, which allows users to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 6, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES TESCO PUSH ON MUSIC GROUPS’ CD DEALS Tesco is pushing music companies to accept minimal upfront payments for the compact discs they ship to the Uk retailer, in a renegotiation that will test how record labels’ bargaining power has diminished in line with shoppers’ interest in CDs. Instead of paying £7 or £8 [...]
BP to meet Russian investors March 6, 2011 Oil behemoth BP will meet with its rebel Russian shareholders today in front of three high court judges. Arbitration proceedings between the firm and shareholders inside TNK-BP will take place, in an attempt to settle disquiet over its strategy in Russia. The shareholders are unhappy that BP will deal with state-backed energy firm Rosneft, rather than [...]
Clitheroe leads the way March 6, 2011 BRITISH distance runner Helen Clitheroe claimed her first ever gold medal at the age of 37 as her teenage team-mate, sprinter Jodie Williams, offered a glimpse of the team’s future at the European Indoor Championships. Clitheroe, whose previous career highlight was 1,500m bronze at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and lost her central funding a year [...]