Ancelotti: Chelsea won’t sack me March 23, 2010 CHELSEA manager Carlo Ancelotti is convinced he will still be in charge next season, irrespective of whether the team’s Premier League and FA Cup challenges flourish or flounder. It cannot have escaped the self-confessed fan of statistics, however, that Roman Abramovich has dispensed with coaches with better records than his. Ancelotti takes his side to [...]
OUT OF OFFICE March 22, 2010 THE WHITE GUARD Following the success at the National Theatre of last year’s tales of communist Russia, Burnt by the Sun and Tom Stoppard’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, comes Mikhail Bulgakov’s The White Guard. A lesser-known work by the Master and Marguerita author, adapted by Andrew Upton, it’s a story of the madness of [...]
OFT paves way for Indie sale March 17, 2010 THE Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has paved the way for ex-KGB man Alexander Lebedev to buy the Independent, after ruling it would not launch an investigation over competition issues. Lebedev recently bought a 75 per cent stake in the London Evening Standard. The OFT had until 26 April to decide whether to investigate but [...]
Profits back in fashion for Zara owner March 17, 2010 THE owner of the Zara fashion chain yesterday reported a five per cent rise in profits, fuelled by hundreds of store openings last year. Inditex’s net profit hit £1.17bn in the year to 31 January. The company opened 343 new stores last year which helped to drive sales. The Spanish firm – which sees 70 [...]
FOREX FLASH March 16, 2010 ROUBLE COULD STRENGTHEN 20 PER CENT The Russian rouble could strengthen by as much as 18 to 20 per cent over the next three years, the Russian deputy economy minister Andrei Klepach said yesterday. Klepach warned that this appreciation would hurt manufacturers and limit economic growth. He added: “We are not ready to move to [...]
Hedge funds investing in big-time divorce March 16, 2010 AMONG all the people who lost money in the downturn, one of the most colourful cases was that of Scot Young, businessman friend of Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and owner of the Ivy restaurant, Richard Caring. When his wife filed for divorce last year it emerged that Young’s £400m fortune had apparently vanished, with Young [...]
Airlines hit by record slump in passengers March 15, 2010 AIRLINES saw the biggest drop in passenger numbers since World War Two last year, as the global recession wreaked havoc on the fortunes of the industry. According to figures published by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), 218m passengers passed through UK airports in 2009 – plunging 7.3 per cent on volumes recorded in 2008. The [...]
Silver lining for Meadows as Britain end on a high March 14, 2010 JENNY MEADOWS failed in her bid to clinch a third gold medal for Great Britain at the World Indoor Championships in Doha when she was beaten down the final straight by Russian Mariya Savinova in the women’s 800m. Last year’s world outdoor bronze medallist still set a new British record of 1.58.43 and said: “I [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 11, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES PUSH FOR CLEARING HOUSES FAILS TO MOVE OIL TRADERS Big oil traders are choosing to keep more derivatives deals private, in spite of a global regulatory campaign to steer such contracts to clearing houses. Their willingness to take on risks viewed as intolerable just a year ago reflects renewed faith in the strength [...]
Arsenal’s Gazidis preaching simple solution to football’s debt problem March 10, 2010 IT seems apt that Ivan Gazidis first fell in love with football at Portsmouth. His boyhood club’s grim descent into administration has laid bare the financial mismanagement prevalent even at the top level, where clubs borrow vast sums just to keep pace with their rivals. Now, as chief executive of Arsenal, he is among the [...]