Giant panda numbers are up: see them in Chengdu February 23, 2014 They famously eat shoots and leaves. LISA YOUNG gets up-close and personal with the Chinese city’s most famous residents IT’S a warm August morning, the time of year when the sizzling Chengdu summer gives way to cooler climes. Chengdu sits in a fog-filled bowl 500 metres above sea level in the Sichuan Province of south [...]
Shell offloads Italian retail unit to Kuwait February 20, 2014 FTSE 100 oil major Dutch Shell yesterday said it will sell its Italian retail, logistics and aviation businesses to Kuwait Petroleum International. Under the agreement, Shell’s retail network of over 830 service stations in the country will be rebranded to Q8. No value was disclosed for the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval and [...]
Buses beat goals at Go-Ahead but train earnings near a cliff February 20, 2014 GO-AHEAD’S bus business is growing revenues, though returns from the firm’s rail franchises are suffering as the contracts near their end dates. The transport group said yesterday its revenues rose 5.7 per cent to £1.37bn for the six months to 28 December, while pre-tax profits jumped 30.8 per cent to £40.3m. Margins were also higher, [...]
How Uber takes over a city in just four days February 19, 2014 Uber’s global expansion has exploded bringing the service to 74 cities since the start of 2011 – the ride-hailing app added 13 new cities in just the first 50 days of 2014 alone – and spearheading this rapid growth are a crack team known as launchers. Described as a blend between US Navy Seals and [...]
How Uber takes over a city in just four days February 19, 2014 Uber’s global expansion has exploded bringing the service to 74 cities since the start of 2011 – the ride-hailing app added 13 new cities in just the first 50 days of 2014 alone – and spearheading this rapid growth are a crack team known as launchers. Described as a blend between US Navy Seals [...]
City Matters: Why opponents of City development ignore our true Victorian heritage February 16, 2014 GUILDHALL is currently playing host to a public inquiry that has major ramifications for planning in the Square Mile and London. The future of the derelict Smithfield General Market and Annex (not the operational meat market next door) – or Smithfield Quarter for shorthand – is under deliberation. The secretary of state for local government [...]
Why transport is the key to unlocking London’s garden suburb renaissance February 13, 2014 THIRTEEN miles east of the Palace of Westminster, a development is taking place that is vital to the future of London’s housing debate. On the site of a former Victorian power station, a town the size of Windsor is being built. Barking Riverside is London’s newest suburb. It is the cousin of Battersea and, while [...]
Creating the height of luxury at The Shard February 13, 2014 Laura Ivill speaks to André Fu about his design plans for the world’s top hotels AS I join André Fu at The Berkeley hotel in Knightsbridge, the sunlight is pouring in and he is surrounded by flowers. It is three weeks before his new suite is launched and he is working on the final details [...]
UK engineer Fandstan sold to New York’s Wabtec for £130m February 12, 2014 FANDSTAN Electric Group, the London-headquartered engineering group whose subsidiaries have provided parts for London’s DLR and the Eurostar, has been sold to New York-listed Wabtec for £130m. The private company was founded by Lord Tanlaw, a former director of his family firm Inchcape, whose grandfather was the final White Rajah of Sarawak, the dynastic monarchy [...]
The boffins have proved it: Commuting makes you miserable February 12, 2014 Who’d be a commuter? Escalating train fares, Tube strikes, people sneezing without covering their noses. My soul’s getting heavy just thinking about it. And now even the boffins at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are weighing in, performing a complex “regression analysis” – a way of comparing lots of different variables, in this case [...]