Mix it up: Raise your glass to London’s best rooftop cocktail bars with a view February 3, 2015 Architects and engineers are at war with the sky. While they battle it out, the rest of us can sit back and raise a glass to the men and women who are realising humanity’s inexorable urge to break the heavens. Each skyscraper will have its day – but there can be no winners. Just consider [...]
Apple taps US bond market for $5bn to fund its share buyback February 2, 2015 APPLE was last night issuing new bonds thought to be worth $5bn (£3.3bn) to fund a host of “general corporate purchases,” including share repurchases. Despite its record quarterly profits of $18bn, the tech giant is making the most of historically-low costs of corporate borrowing. In its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing Apple said the [...]
Four things we know about China’s luxury consumers: Apple is most desirable but British brands rate among wealthy shoppers February 2, 2015 Chinese spending on luxury goods may be faltering as the economy slows down and the government clamps down on gift-giving of luxury items, but consumer spending is still expected to help carry the country’s economy ahead of the US as the world’s largest over the next decade. The rise of the luxury brand in Asian [...]
Apple plans to issue $5bn worth of bonds February 2, 2015 Apple is issuing new bonds thought to be worth $5bn (£3.3bn) to fund a host of “general corporate purchases,” including share repurchases, dividends, capital expenditures and acquisitions, and repayment of debt. Despite a record quarterly earnings of $18bn, the tech giant is making the most of the record-low costs of corporate borrowing. Seven, 10 and [...]
From Greek elections and Apple’s record-making profits to Thameslink floods and Afren’s misery: Here’s what got us talking this week January 30, 2015 News was dominated by results from the US this week, but it was Apple that really made waves with its history-making profits of $18bn in one quarter. Here are five things that put that into perspective. (Hint: It's huge). Meanwhile as the results of the Greek election began to sink in, investors started reacting. [...]
Apple’s share price just hit a record high of $120 following huge post-iPhone 6 quarterly earnings January 30, 2015 Not content with smashing records when it comes to profit and iPhone sales, Apple's share price just hit $120 per share, its highest price ever. Shares jumped almost a percentage point on yesterday's $118.90 close, taking it above a previous all-time high of $119.75 which it touched back in November. After revealing a stellar set [...]
Jay Z bids £40m for Swedish music streaming Spotify rival Tidal January 30, 2015 Spotify could be about to become another issue to add to Jay-Z's list of 99 Problems: the US music mogul has bid half a billion krone, about £40m, for Aspiro, the parent company of Swedish streaming platform Tidal. The platform, which launched in the UK in October, focuses on high quality "lossless" music. At the [...]
Google’s results: Here’s what you need to know January 29, 2015 Google has reported its results for the fourth quarter and its worse than expected. Earnings per share were 20 cents below analysts' estimates at $6.88 while revenue came in $100m short at $14.5bn. On the upside profits were $4.76bn – 30 per cent up from the same period the year before. Analysts' forecast compiled by [...]
Now Gmail lets you transfer money via email in the UK January 29, 2015 Gmail users can now transfer money via email with a new feature from Google. With a simple click of a button and using Google Wallet, Gmailers in the UK can now transfer cash to anyone- even if the recipient doesn’t use Gmail. Rolling out over the next few weeks, users can also use the feature [...]
City Moves for 29 January 2015 | Who’s switching jobs January 28, 2015 Octopus The fund manager has announced the appointment of Jose de Pablo as investment director to support its healthcare business. He joins from Colliers International, where he provided strategic and corporate finance advice to real estate funds, lenders and operators. Savills Mark Simms has been appointed director in the real estate adviser’s London-based retail team. [...]