Premier Foods profits fall as costs rise August 5, 2011 Food manufacturer Premier Foods said it was seeing an improving trend in its second half as it posted an expected 29 per cent fall in first-half profit, hit by higher commodity costs and a depressed consumer environment. The maker of Branston pickle, Bisto gravy and Hovis bread said Friday it made a trading profit for [...]
Asia boosts Robert Walters August 4, 2011 BRITISH recruitment firm Robert Walters has posted a 23 per cent increase in first–half net fees, boosted by international growth. Markets outside the UK contributed 74 per cent to its net fee income, with the company’s Asia Pacific business growing 29 per cent. Both China and Thailand enjoyed a doubling of net fee income, after [...]
BROCKET DIGS DEEP IN SPORTS CARS HUNT August 3, 2011 IT IS almost 13 years to the day since Lord Brocket walked free from Springhill open prison after serving two-and-half years for insurance fraud, and The Capitalist hears a party is potentially in the offing to mark the happy occasion. This will be no ordinary celebration though, if the outlandish suggestion actually becomes a reality [...]
Europe’s rich flood London’s house market August 1, 2011 THE price of luxury homes in central London has jumped by almost 10 per cent in the past year, driven by demand from wealthy Europeans looking to invest outside of the troubled Eurozone economies. Prime London property prices have risen 9.6 per cent since July 2010, and are more than 28 per cent higher than [...]
BETFAIR’S IRON LADY IS ON HER LAST LEG July 31, 2011 FOUR down and one to go. No, not the number of top-level scalps claimed by the News Corp scandal, but the feats of endurance completed by Betfair’s Susannah Gill, the Iron Lady of the City, as part of her five-part “ultimate challenge” between April and September. Gill, who is making the original iron woman Margaret [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 26, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LAW FIRM STOPS WORK ON INQUIRY INTO PHONE HACKING BCL Burton Copeland, the law firm, is no longer advising News International about an investigation into phone hacking. The firm stopped working for NI, which publishes Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers, last week, insiders familiar with the situation said, after it was called in at [...]
Political fears drag down Wall Street July 26, 2011 The stalemate in US debt talks dragged down stocks for a second day yesterday, and light volume showed investors remained reluctant to make bets despite another round of healthy earnings. Declining issues solidly outpaced advancing ones, even though major averages showed mostly modest declines. A failure to raise the US debt limit by an 2 [...]
Lazy man yoga is great for you – without the sweat July 25, 2011 IN the event, lazy man yoga doesn’t have an awful lot to do with yoga. It turns out to be more like a post-workout stretch session. There are no floor-mats, no mantras and no dogs, downward-facing or otherwise. There’s a lot of stretching, but it’s more or less done for you by your therapist who [...]
Norway death toll continues to climb to 93 July 24, 2011 NEO-NAZI sympathiser Anders Behring Breivik yesterday admitted carrying out both the shooting spree on a Norwegian island youth camp and the Oslo bombing, which have so-far claimed 93 lives. At least four more people are missing, with police still recovering bodies from the icy water surrounding the island of Utøya and offices around the bomb [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 24, 2011 ASHCOURT ROWAN The wealth management group has appointed Jeremy Rance, its chief operating officer, as an executive director. Rance, 48, joined Ashcourt Rowan as director of planning in June last year. He led the negotiations on the acquisition of the Co-op Independent Financial Adviser business in October 2010. Rance was appointed as chief operating officer [...]