Before the open – 15/08 August 15, 2013 The Nikkei dropped sharply last night after finance minister Taro Aso denied prime minister Shinzo Abe was not considering a corporate tax cut – as the Nikkei newspaper had previously reported on Tuesday. Many have said such a tax cut would be a huge shot in the arm for Japan, which is languishing under huge [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 14 August 2013 August 13, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES EU pushes single market in telecoms Brussels’ top competition authority has called for 28 national telecoms regulators to be replaced by a single pan-European watchdog. The report from commissioner Joaquin Almunia criticises EU telecoms chief Neelie Kroes for lacking ambition in her plan to create a single telecoms market. Kroes hopes her proposals [...]
Asos appoints M&S veteran Ian Dyson August 7, 2013 ASOS has replaced one Marks & Spencer veteran with another after hiring the high street chain’s former finance director Ian Dyson as a senior independent director. Dyson will join Asos’ board in October, the online fashion group said yesterday, just weeks after revealing that M&S’s ex-clothing boss Kate Bostock had left the firm. The 51-year-old [...]
Investment Comment: Taking Aim with your Isa investments August 6, 2013 AT THE beginning of this week, the government removed an unpopular restriction on Individual Savings Accounts (Isas). Now, for the first time, investors with the confidence to select individual shares for their stocks and shares Isa are able to invest in companies listed on the junior Alternative Investment Market (Aim). Preventing investors from putting Aim [...]
Another senior level departure at online fashion retailer Asos July 21, 2013 ASOS’s human resources director Michelle Emmerson has stepped down, in the latest high profile departure at the online fashion giant. Her departure comes less than a week after Kate Bostock, the former head of clothing at Marks & Spencer, announced that she was to leave the company just seven months into the job. Asos has [...]
FTSE surges upward to join US stock markets July 18, 2013 Following record breaking gains from US stock markets (the S&P also broke new highs shortly after posting), the FTSE is up over one per cent, driven by rallies in the Royal Bank of Scotland, Aberdeen Asset Management, Barclays and the London Stock Exchange. Lloyds Banking Group, Kingfisher and ASOS have also hit new highs. This [...]
Kate Bostock to quit Asos after seven months July 16, 2013 KATE Bostock, the former head of clothing at Marks and Spencer, has quit her new employer Asos after just seven months at the online retailer. In a surprise statement yesterday, Bostock, who was executive director for product and trading, said she had concluded that “Asos isn’t the right place for me”. Nick Robertson, the founder [...]
As one fashion door closes the next one opens July 16, 2013 THERE has been a mass exodus in the retailing world lately – with British fashion label Nicole Farhi going into administration last week and two female retail powerhouses bowing out of their high-powered jobs this week. My-wardrobe.com founder Sarah Curran left her role as board member and face of the firm on Monday, and only yesterday [...]
Britain’s Facebook is already here but we lack the tools to identify it February 18, 2013 IT’S been described as “the $4.2 trillion (£2.7 trillion) opportunity”. According to the Boston Consulting Group, there will be 3bn internet users globally by 2016. If it were a nation, the internet-based economy would rank in the world’s top five. And the UK sits at the forefront, with 8.3 per cent of GDP now online [...]
Reflections on Tulchan’s demise at Marks & Spencer February 14, 2013 FOUR weeks ago I asked Andrew Grant of Tulchan a simple question. Had his firm been fired from the retailer Marks & Spencer as its external financial public relations adviser, following the leaking of its annual results which forced their rushed and premature publication? Grant, rightly known for being courteous, well-informed and straightforward, responded that [...]