London Coffee Festival returns to Truman Brewery: Founder Ludovic Rossignol explains what it’s all about April 28, 2015 WHAT IS YOUR MISSION WITH THE LONDON COFFEE FESTIVAL? It’s all about elevating standards in the coffee industry and educating people about speciality coffee, as well as celebrating the vibrant London coffee scene and the shops that form its backbone. WHAT CAN PEOPLE EXPECT? The festival is now in its fifth year and has [...]
Brexit and the City: Business and Brussels – to stay or split? April 27, 2015 HSBC chairman Douglas Flint entered a political firestorm last week when he said Britain’s biggest bank was considering moving its headquarters out of the UK. Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) in London on Friday, Flint said the bank was looking to relocate in part due to uncertainty over the UK’s relationship [...]
Funding Circle’s new funding round will value the London FinTech startup at $1bn April 2, 2015 Funding Circle is on the verge of closing a new round of funding which would value the London FinTech startup at more than $1bn (£674m) and see it join just a handful of UK tech companies with billion-dollar valuations. The peer-to-peer lender could close funding of more than £50m within weeks, including backing from Blackrock and [...]
RBS sees better-than-expected price for its Aldgate office block March 31, 2015 Bids for one of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s office buildings in Aldgate have entered a second round, with the taxpayer-owned lender set to gain a better-than-expected payout. The bank appointed advisory firm DTZ at the end of last year to sell Aldgate Union on Whitechapel High Street, with a guide price of around £85m. [...]
Wigglesworth backs controversial criticism of Lancaster by RFU boss March 26, 2015 ENGLAND scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth has conceded the criticism from Rugby Football Union chief Executive Ian Ritchie regarding his side’s Six Nations performance was entirely justified. Ritchie described England’s championship showing, at which Stuart Lancaster’s side recorded a fourth successive runners-up finish, as unacceptable and insisted there was no excuse for such a paucity of championships [...]
Anti-austerity riots in Frankfurt hit Central Bank March 18, 2015 THE OPENING of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) new €1.3bn (£940m) headquarters in Frankfurt was met with riots yesterday as demonstrations staged by so-called Blockupy activists turned ugly. Police vehicles and rubbish bins were set ablaze as police and protesters clashed, leading to dozens of arrests. Some 7,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Frankfurt, [...]
Bijou skiing on a budget: Saint Martin de Belleville March 15, 2015 You can’t beat this intimate 14th century village for convenience and scenery. Saint Martin de Belleville is the most civilized way to access the Three Valleys without having to re-mortgage your dacha. It’s aptly named; villes don’t get much more belle than this. The town square boasts a church built in the 14th century facing [...]
The end of an illusion: What Boris Nemtsov’s murder means for the international community March 14, 2015 On February 27, Boris Nemtsov, the Russian statesman, physicist, and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was executed by unknown assailants just outside Moscow’s Red Square. A liberal reformer, Nemtsov was a key figure in the introduction of capitalism to post-Soviet Russia. He was also seen as a uniting figure, someone who could bring [...]
Take a risk, invest in Ukraine says Kiev’s ex-boxer mayor Vitaliy “Iron Fist” Klitschko March 12, 2015 With the usual enormous Russian pavilion conspicuous by its absence at this year's Mipim property bash, Russians have all but deserted the event this year – but their warring partner Ukraine has arrived in force, with Kiev mayor and former world champion boxer Vitaliy Klitschko flying in yesterday to persuade institutions to invest in the [...]
France threatens TTIP as senate demands removal of ISDS February 5, 2015 The French senate is demanding that one of the most controversial parts of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) be removed. In a move that could put the future of the US-EU free trade deal in jeopardy, French senators on Tuesday opposed the inclusion of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). The ISDS is a [...]