WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 14, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES FEARS RAISED AS “LACK OF CAUTION” FUELS COMMERCIAL PROPERTY VALUES Commercial real estate values have been spurred by a “lack of caution” on the back of an “astonishing” rebound in lending to the sector, according to one of the largest global fund managers. LaSalle Investment e, which manages $45bn (£27bn) of real estate [...]
Nestle raises full-year outlook August 10, 2011 THE world’s biggest food group Nestle raised its full-year forecasts yesterday, after strong demand for its Maggi and Nescafe brands in emerging markets helped it post a forecast-beating 7.5 per cent rise in underlying first-half sales. Sales grew in all regions, even in crisis-shaken Europe and North America, and the group managed to keep margins [...]
Varde in deal to take Crest Nicholson on August 7, 2011 HOUSING firm Crest Nicholson will be taken over by a US distressed debt specialist within the next few weeks, a source close to the firm confirmed yesterday. Minneapolis-based Varde Partners has been working for months with advisers Lazard and Bingham McCutchen to assess the options for the firm, which became 90 per cent owned by [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 7, 2011 Survitec Group The manufacturer and distributor for the marine, defence and aerospace survival technology industries that was bought by private equity firm Warburg Pincus in 2010 has appointed Paul Lester CBE as chairman. Lester, the former chief executive of VT Group and group managing director of Balfour Beatty, is currently chairman of Greenergy and non-executive [...]
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 [...]