How betting markets could solve the problem of inaccurate Bank forecasts August 28, 2013 IN HIS first major speech since becoming governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney is today likely to defend a policy that has come to be described as the “Carney rule”. Also known as forward guidance, the rule effectively promises that interest rates will stay at present levels until unemployment drops below 7 per [...]
How betting markets could solve the problem of inaccurate Bank forecasts August 27, 2013 IN HIS first major speech since becoming governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney is today likely to defend a policy that has come to be described as the “Carney rule”. Also known as forward guidance, the rule effectively promises that interest rates will stay at present levels until unemployment drops below 7 per [...]
Ocado and Sports Direct: better to arrive late than not at all August 26, 2013 Whenever bankers are asked to explain why London’s market for new issues – the IPO market – nearly collapsed altogether last year, they cite a number of factors that always include the poor performance of a number of high-profile flotations. The lists are long and varied but almost everybody’s bete noirs include Sports Direct, Mike [...]
Premier League return will benefit more than just well-paid players August 15, 2013 THE PREMIER League returns tomorrow. Although most of us will be interested in the quality of the football on offer, the amounts of money involved are no less significant. It’s Europe’s highest revenue-generating league by a margin of over €1bn (£850m), with combined club revenue of over £2.3bn in 2011-12. But while players continue to [...]
Fast, sexy, cool: the Seat Leon SC August 12, 2013 Seat may not be the hippest car brand in the world, but the Leon SC provides a welcome injection of street cred BACK in 1990, When VW Group bought Spanish automaker Seat, it wanted to position it in its stable the same way Alfa Romeo sits within the Fiat Group. It has, however, struggled to [...]
Sports Direct picks up Goldman to be its third corporate broker August 6, 2013 SPORTS Direct has named Goldman Sachs as its third corporate broker, months after chairman Mike Ashley used the bank to help sell £100m of his shareholding. The retailer said Goldman Sachs’ first task will be to work with its employee trust to sell 17m shares through a secondary placing. Espirito Santo was also named on [...]
Boston Globe sold to owner of Red Sox baseball team for $70m August 4, 2013 THE New York Times has agreed to sell The Boston Globe to the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, John W Henry, for $70m (£45.8m) in cash, ending its 20-year ownership of the paper. The transaction includes the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, related digital properties of both papers, and a direct mail [...]
Why is Mike Ashley in trouble over zero hour contracts? July 29, 2013 Trade union Unite has called for an urgent meeting with Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley over the treatment of Sports Direct staff after it was found that all of it’s part-time employees – accounting for 90 per cent of its workforce – are employed on zero hour contracts. A zero hour contract requires employees to [...]
BT Sport signs up 500,000 in battle with Sky July 25, 2013 HALF a million homes are ready to receive BT’s new sports channels when they launch on 1 August, it was announced yesterday. The company says more than 500,000 households have already signed up to access the new service, which represents a billion pound punt by the telecoms giant and puts it in direct competition with [...]
Sports Direct to pay staff £150m in shares bonus July 18, 2013 THOUSANDS of Sports Direct employees are set to share in a bonus pool worth over £150m after the sports retail giant posted record profits. Around 2,000 staff will next month receive an average of 12,000 shares each as part of a 2009 bonus scheme that – at yesterday’s share price – will be worth around [...]