Business as usual? Hardly, for anyone working in finance September 1, 2011 SINCE the financial crisis, business secretary Vince Cable has taken to the airways on a regular basis to criticise a supposed culture of business as usual in the City, suggesting that the government must get ever-tougher to counter the fact that hardly anything has changed for banks. Nothing could be further from the truth. HSBC [...]
New approaches: network your way to the top in a private members’ club August 31, 2011 THE IVY, SOHO TYPICAL MEMBER: Members are usually already well connected. Duncan Bannatyne, Andrew Lloyd Webber and the BBC’s Mark Thompson have been spotted there recently. STYLE: The management are hell bent on privacy. No cameras or phones. Membership is through recommendation only. EASE OF NETWORKING: Great speaker events give you access to big-name celebrities. EIGHT [...]
Pressure on Osborne to ignore ICB August 29, 2011 PRESSURE mounted on George Osborne last night not to push through with the radical banking reforms that will be recommended by Sir John Vickers next month. The Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) has already suggested the retail arms of British banks should be ringfenced from their other activities. Angela Knight, head of the British Bankers’ [...]
Homes still pay on the Cote d’Azur August 25, 2011 WHAT with European economic chaos, earthquakes and hurricanes pummelling the US and the most valuable company in the world losing its CEO, one rather can’t help but recall Benjamin Franklin’s saying: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. Well, perhaps Franklin missed one thing in his list of [...]
GOODMANS RAISES THE STEAKS IN MAYFAIR August 23, 2011 CONTINUING the theme of the boom in the City’s resurgent restaurant scene, as reported yesterday, The Capitalist hears steakhouse Goodmans is plotting not one but two launches for November. One is a traditional Goodmans restaurant on the South Quay at Canary Wharf to complement the City and Mayfair venues. The other marks a new direction [...]
West Ham in clear over stadium August 22, 2011 OLYMPICS: West Ham have edged a step closer to moving into the Olympic Stadium after an independent inquiry found no evidence of wrongdoing by Dionne Knight, an employee of legacy chiefs the OPLC. Ms Knight also did paid consultancy work for the Hammers but auditors Moore Smith found no evidence that she accessed confidential information [...]
Mancini lays down law to Arsenal over Nasri deal August 21, 2011 BOLTON (2) vs MANCHESTER CITY (3) MANCHESTER CITY manager Roberto Mancini has warned Arsenal he could pull the plug on a £25m move for Samir Nasri if Arsene Wenger plays him in the Champions League against Udinese this week. Mancini saw his team go top of the Premier League with a 3-2 win at Bolton [...]
Wall St slammed by recession fears August 18, 2011 RISING fears of another recession hammered US stocks yesterday, sending major averages sharply lower in a return to the extreme fluctuations investors endured a week ago. New worries about the health of European banks set the tone before the market’s open, and a dismal report on regional US manufacturing fueled a downward spiral in which [...]
London trends: who’s moving the prime market higher? August 18, 2011 THE headlines are clear: core prime central London property – that is central London property at the very top of the market in places like Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Belgravia – is rocketing in value, keeping pace with gold as an asset class. Supply of these properties is now chronically low, adding even more upward price [...]
United plans $1bn float in Singapore August 16, 2011 MANCHESTER United is preparing to launch an audacious Singapore float in which it could raise more than £600m. The club’s controversial American owners hope the IPO could value their prized asset at more than £2bn, taking advantage of the huge popularity of the Manchester United brand in the east. It is understood between 20 and [...]