Classic is best for Caribbean satisfaction October 14, 2010 CARIBBEAN hotspots come and go but Barbados is a sunny stalwart – a developed, cultured playground for the rich and famous (Simon Cowell, Cliff Richard and Andrew Flintoff all have properties here), as well as for more humble folk. Yet despite its stability as a British favourite for homes and holidays in the sun (80 [...]
Banks in bid to boost lending October 13, 2010 Britain’s biggest banks have outlined a raft of measures to boost lending to small businesses, including a £1.5bn growth fund, in a bid to counter suggestions they are not doing enough to nurture the recovery. HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered and the UK operations of Santander will contribute to [...]
The grisly taste of her screams October 13, 2010 SCREAM BY NIGEL MCCRERY Quercus, £20 A more gruesome beginning to a book you couldn’t ask for. A woman is bound, with her kneecaps exposed, as a ruthless killer tells her how he’s going to carve through her knee bones, one after the other, before moving onto other parts. Her screams are immense but pointless. [...]
City sceptical on the prospect of rival offers for PotashCorp October 11, 2010 ANALYSTS yesterday poured scorn on talk of rival white knight offers waiting in the wings to scupper BHP Billiton’s $39bn (£24.5bn) bid for Canadian fertiliser giant PotashCorp. Reports over the weekend suggested both the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund and Chinese state-owned chemicals group Sinochem had already approached Temasek with a view to trying to find [...]
Businesses still feeling the pinch on bank loans October 10, 2010 CASH-STRAPPED UK companies are still struggling to get bank loans, a new survey has claimed. Almost 40 per cent of businesses surveyed said it had become harder to access bank lending over the past year, while 14 per cent believed it had worsened in the past three months. Yet 27 per cent said their need [...]
Flats for the Eurocrat: a Brussels bargain October 7, 2010 IF YOU’RE moving to Brussels, it’s unlikely to be for the Belgian beer, the moules-frites and the chocolates. Most Britons relocate to the Belgian capital for work and join the 100,000-strong expat community of European Union workers, lobbyists and lawyers for at least a year or two. While most expats tend to rent when they [...]
Private sector loans support solid SMEs September 30, 2010 In a speech on Wednesday, prominent backbench Conservative MP David Davis said that Britain must do more to help small and medium size businesses through the recession, but stressed that this did not mean forcing the banks to lend. Instead he argued that businesses themselves would be the source of the recovery. The government has [...]
Sanofi eyes higher Genzyme bid September 29, 2010 SANOFI-AVENTIS is considering whether to raise its $18.5bn (£12bn) bid for US drugmaker Genzyme as soon as next week. France’s largest drugmaker is said to be leaning towards raising the $69-a-share offer by $1 or $2 a share. It has not ruled out a hostile bid but would prefer friendly negotiations, it is understood. Sanofi [...]
Top 100 list shows women at senior level September 26, 2010 MORE than a fifth of Europe’s 100 most influential women sit at the top of some of the largest companies within the financial services sector, according to new findings. According to the fourth annual list of the 100 most influential women compiled by Financial News, more than 20 per cent of the listed women in [...]
Knight Frank cautious after bumper year September 26, 2010 ESTATE agent Knight Frank said it expects to suffer after the government’s spending review next month, as the firm announced a 168 per cent rise in profit to £58.4m for last year. The group said yesterday that all of its branches were in profit, with particular strength in the UK and Asia pushing revenue up [...]