La Senza and Blacks saved from brink January 9, 2012 IT WAS all change on the high street yesterday after two of the UK’s stricken retailers, lingerie chain La Senza and outdoor sportswear company Blacks Leisure, were rescued from administration. Retailer JD Sports confirmed yesterday that it had bought all of Blacks’ 290 stores and the bulk of its business from its administrator KPMG in [...]
IT’S SHOWTIME January 9, 2012 THE 2012 Laureus World Sports Awards are coming to London next month – and City A.M. will be providing the best coverage over the next few weeks in the build-up to this world-famous event. The Laureus World Sports Awards Ceremony, to be held at Central Hall, Westminster, on Monday 6 February, is recognised as the [...]
Dragon adds fire to fight for Blacks Leisure stores January 5, 2012 DRAGONS’ Den star and serial entrepreneur Peter Jones has thrown his hat in the ring for the troubled outdoor goods retailer Blacks Leisure, which was put up for sale last month. Jones, who is on the panel of the BBC reality TV show, has emerged as one of the four trade bidders to have tabled [...]
JJB enjoys an uplift in sales for Christmas January 5, 2012 SPORTS retailer JJB, which was on the verge of collapse last year, has battled its way through the crucial Christmas period, reporting a five per cent lift in like-for-like sales in December. JJB’s second-half like-for-like sales fell by 7.8 per cent while margins fell by 3.2 per cent, it said yesterday. But this was still [...]
Deadline for Blacks bids draws closer as January 3, 2012 SPORTS DIRECT, the retailer controlled by the billionaire football tycoon Mike Ashley (pictured), is understood to be one of four interested buyers expected to place a bid for the ailing outdoor retailer Blacks Leisure within the next two days. Blacks, which put itself up for sale last month after failing to secure extra funding, is [...]
Ten of the top givers in the City December 21, 2011 AS we now know from the tremendous response to this newspaper’s first ever Christmas charity appeal, the City is full of givers. Despite the tougher times many of our readers have experienced, as a group this year they dug in to support a charity that helps people help themselves. This page is a tribute to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 20, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BP, TOTAL AND STATOIL SECURE ANGOLA RIGHTS A new exploration frontier off the coast of Angola that may be similar to oil fields found in Brazil is to be opened after the government of the African country awarded drilling rights to some of the world’s largest energy groups. Britain’s BP, Total of France [...]
Black’s Leisure looks for new bidders or faces winding-up December 18, 2011 BLACK’S LEISURE faces falling into administrators’ hands and being broken up if the struggling outdoor chain fails to find a buyer this week, putting 2,000 jobs at risk. Black’s competitors Go Outdoors and Mountain Warehouse have both emerged as likely bidders for the company after Sports Direct’s billionaire founder Mike Ashley ruled out a bid [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 18, 2011 BP Evolution has maintained its “buy” recommendation on BP, after the oil giant settled its dispute with contractor Cameron over the Macondo accident – although its target price of 510p is at “the lower end” of a valuation range that scales to 771p/sh. Evolution also notes that BP is talking to Ophir Energy about farming [...]
Miners fuel FTSE gains December 16, 2011 The FTSE 100 continued where it left off in the last session with a moderate rally fuelled by positive data from the US. US weekly jobless claims fell to a three-year low suggesting that its economic recovery was still on track. But markets still remain braced for credit rating downgrades for Eurozone countries as agencies [...]