DMGT sells its print works site to British Land June 27, 2012 THE DAILY MAIL & General Trust (DMGT) said yesterday it has sold its printing works site at London’s Canada Water to British Land for an undisclosed sum. Analysts estimate the Daily Mail owner to have pocketed around £12m to £14m for the site. The deal will see British Land acquire the newspaper group’s freehold and [...]
RAPID RESPONSES June 27, 2012 Hester is not RBS [Re: Useless PR has turned NatWest’s woes into a corporate nightmare, yesterday] Having gone through James Hutchinson’s piece on the RBS computer failures, I was very surprised that all his attacks were directed on the person of Stephen Hester rather than the bank itself. I believe Hester has handled the situation [...]
OLYMPICS BY NUMBERS June 27, 2012 10.8m ticketholders (8.8m Olympic, 2m Paralympic). 200,000 people in the workforce. Including 6,000 staff, 70,000 volunteers and 100,000 contractors. 1500 UK firms have won over £6.3bn of Olympic Development Authority contracts. LOCOG has awarded a further £1bn. 118 overseas teams have signed pre-games training camp agreements in communities across the UK. 1m pieces of sport [...]
Regulatory hurdles for the UK financial sector to consider June 27, 2012 THE Olympics Delivery Authority (ODA) predicts 20m trips by spectators during London 2012, including some 3m on the busiest day. The resulting inevitable transport chaos is prompting businesses and employees to look closely at how best to keep operating efficiently, in particular working from home. Many financial services sector staff work in Docklands and the [...]
Upbeat outlook as Stagecoach grows revenue June 26, 2012 STAGECOACH, one of the UK’s biggest bus and coach operators, said yesterday it was confident about the coming 12 months, despite a 1.5 per cent dip in pre-tax profits to £202.5m. Revenues rose eight per cent to £2.6bn, helped by a strong financial performance at its London bus services. But its East Midlands rail franchise [...]
London 2012 will be most expensive Olympics ever June 25, 2012 LONDON 2012 is set to be the most expensive Olympics to date with a projected cost of £8.4bn, according to a report released yesterday. Researchers at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School say this equates to a 101 per cent overrun compared to the original budget of just £4.2bn in 2005. But Professor Bent [...]
It is crazy that high speed rail will fail to integrate with our airports June 25, 2012 THE Government has got High Speed Two (HS2) wrong. As one of the architects of Britain’s first high speed railway, HS1 – connecting London with the Channel Tunnel – I am in a unique position to write this. Whatever the truth behind the rumours and denials that the project is to be abandoned, the focus [...]
Go-Ahead sees a difficult year ahead for rail June 21, 2012 SHARES in transport group Go-Ahead slipped 1.9 per cent yesterday as a disappointing outlook for its rail business overshadowed a good overall performance last year. Go-Ahead said its bus network was growing well, and the firm expects a four per cent like-for-like revenue rise in the year to the end of June, thanks in part [...]
Boris pledges bus bonus cash June 20, 2012 BORIS Johnson has pledged to make an £8.3m pot available to fund an Olympics bonus for bus drivers and avert strike action tomorrow. The Mayor yesterday told the London Assembly that money from the Olympic Delivery Authority could be used to compensate the city’s bus drivers for working during the Games, in line with other [...]
Eurotunnel becomes first firm to list on NYSE Euronext London June 20, 2012 NYSE Euronext yesterday announced that cross-channel transport operator Eurotunnel would become the first listed stock on its London market. This means that for the first time London Stock Exchange (LSE) has had genuine competition for listings in the capital. Eurotunnel currently has a dual listing with the LSE in London and NYSE Euronext in Paris but [...]