FTSE enjoys some breathing space as bargain-hunters prompt gains May 24, 2012 BRITAIN’S benchmark share index recovered yesterday from stinging losses during the previous session as bargain hunters snapped up beaten-down financial and commodities stocks, although traders said any rally could prove short-lived. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed up 83.64 points, or 1.6 per cent, to 5,350.05 points. It fell 2.5 per cent on Wednesday to [...]
Berkeley Group pays £150m for Murdoch’s Fortress Wapping May 16, 2012 THE FORMER headquarters of News International, based in East London, has been snapped up by Berkeley Group. A source close to the deal told City A.M. that the Wapping site was sold for around £150m. Fortress Wapping, so called when Rupert Murdoch defeated unions and moved away from Fleet Street, was bought by Murdoch in [...]
Beaches and barristers in the sunny Bahamas April 22, 2012 An architectural oddity in the middle of Nassau’s Parliament Square screams out for your attention. The octagonal library and city museum is painted pale pink (like all the important buildings in The Bahamas’ capital). I climb up creaky steps to the first floor and admire paintings of Nassau dashed off by ships’ artists in the [...]
Not for flower girls these days: Covent Garden’s luxury new flats March 29, 2012 Less than a mile up the road in Mayfair, property sells for at least £2,000 per square foot. Covent Garden, arguably a more vibrant area of central London, is still roughly half as expensive – homes can be had at prices from £1,000 per square foot. Perhaps not for long, though: one of the reasons [...]
SUPERMODELS AND SHY TYCOONS LAUNCH THE SCOTCH AND JALOUSE January 22, 2012 TWO PARTIES in one evening. Just a usual Thursday night out for supermodel Kate Moss, who started last Thursday evening at Arjun Waney’s Arts Club before moving on to the re-opening of The Scotch the other side of Piccadilly in St James’s. The Capitalist had been informed that the venue’s opening night would be a [...]
FTSE tumbles as doubts over Eurozone deal take their toll December 12, 2011 Britain’s FTSE 100 fell in light volume yesterday, with investors selling riskier banking and mining assets as analysts concluded that the lack of detail in a European deal on fiscal union left question marks over its long-term plausibility. London’s blue-chips fell 101.35 points, or 1.8 per cent, to 5,427.86, erasing Friday’s 0.8 per cent rise, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 4, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES SURGE IN UK CORPORATE BONDS Sterling corporate bond issuance is soaring, but euro-denominated bond sales are at a six-year low – as more companies turn to the relative stability of the London market amid Europe’s financial turmoil. UK and international companies have sold more than $42bn worth of sterling-denominated bonds so far this [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 27, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES PLEA TO BRUSSELS OVER AUDIT SHAKE-UP The heads of several midsized audit networks have issued a last-ditch appeal to the European Commssion not to dilute sweeping proposals aimed at reducing the dominance of the four biggest accountants and improving audit quality. In a joint interview with the Financial Times, the chief executives called [...]
Reclaim the City from Robin Hood tax risks November 6, 2011 MUCH has been written in recent weeks about the protest camp outside St Paul’s and about the City of London Corporation’s attitude to it. I would like to take this opportunity to bring a degree of clarity to the situation. The City fully supports the democratic right to protest and at no point have we [...]
Greeks vote for taxes but Germans rebel September 27, 2011 THE Greek government managed to persuade its members of parliament to vote for further austerity measures yesterday, a crucial step in securing its next tranche of aid to avoid a default next month. All the ruling Socialist party’s 154 MPs, plus one independent, voted to impose a controversial new property tax that aims to raise [...]