The Evening Standard (London, England) articles from August 2006

The Evening Standard (London, England) archives from August 2006

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.
August 1, 2006... Byline: Anthony Hilton Aug. 1--August, only beginning today, has to be the most dangerous month of the year in financial markets. No doubt someone, somewhere, has records dating back to year zero that tell us the dates of every financial...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.
August 1, 2006... Aug. 1--EXECUTIVES at iShares, the Barclays subsidiary, can be forgiven for taking an unhealthy interest in testosterone and urine all of a sudden. The firm was only too pleased to step in when, after this year's race, Phonak of Switzerland,...

House prices set a hot pace in July sunshine.
August 1, 2006... Byline: James Rossiter Aug. 1--House prices are rising at their fastest pace for 15 months. Nationwide, Britain's biggest building society, said today that the average cost of a home rose 0.8 percent in July compared with June, and...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.
August 1, 2006... Byline: Mickey Clark Aug. 1--Online gambling shares remained under a cloud today after a Federal judge in St Louis extended the temporary ban on BetonSports taking bets in the US. Just last month the US Department of Justice arrested...

BetonSports boss in chains for bail plea.
August 1, 2006... Byline: Ross Tieman Aug. 1--David Carruthers, the former chief executive of online gambling group BetonSports, is to stay in jail while negotiations over his $1 million (536 million) bail continue, an American court ruled last night. ...

Reubens and Hunter pounce at McCarthy.
August 1, 2006... Byline: James Rossiter Aug. 1--The Reuben Brothers and Sir Tom Hunter finally broke cover today with a recommended bid for McCarthy & Stone that values Britain's biggest retirement homes builder at [pounds sterling]1.1 billion. After...

Ryanair chills with a warning of winter loss.
August 1, 2006... Byline: Nick Goodway Aug. 1--No-frills airline Ryanair could make a loss in the coming winter despite having a record-breaking first quarter, chief executive Michael O'Leary warned today. Rising fuel costs, substantial extra capacity...

Buyouts do nosedive despite BAA takeover.
August 2, 2006... Aug. 2--Corporate takeover activity fell sharply in the second quarter of this year compared with the first three months. It was spread equally between foreign firms acquiring in the UK and British companies buying at home and abroad, official...

Evening Standard, London, Chris Blackhurst column.
August 2, 2006... Byline: Chris Blackhurst Aug. 2--When I last met Charles Allen he presented a robust, prickly defence of his stewardship of ITV. The occasion before that he did the same. In fact, the more I think about it, ever since he took charge of the...

McAlpine reaps the rewards from property maintenance.
August 2, 2006... Aug. 2--As more and more firms outsource the maintenance of their property portfolios, builder and facilities manager Alfred McAlpine is reaping the rewards, ending the first half to June with an order book worth a record [pounds sterling]3.7...

High-flying World Cup fans give Air Partner a big lift.
August 2, 2006... Aug. 2--Aircraft charter group Air Partner today upgraded its profits forecast thanks to huge boom in the market for executive jets to take high-rollers to the World Cup. The group said an unexpected surge in demand to hire its jets to fly...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.
August 2, 2006... Aug. 2--Is The Apprentice cursed? In Britain, Sir Alan Sugar's Amstrad business has run into difficulties. Then it's revealed that the latest winner and Amstrad recruit, Michelle Dewberry, is pregnant by another contestant. In the US, star job...

Credit Suisse at the double as deals boom.
August 2, 2006... Byline: Nick Goodway Aug. 2--Credit Suisse's investment banking arm more than doubled its profits in the last three months, the Swiss group revealed today. The bank, which includes wealth management and private banking arms but has...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.
August 2, 2006... Byline: Anthony Hilton Aug. 2--Gibson Hall in Bishopsgate is one of the most elegant venues in the City, but there will be nothing elegant about the gathering there this Friday morning for an extraordinary meeting of Telent, which is the...

Savings and pension boost for Lloyds TSB.
August 2, 2006... Byline: Nick Goodway Aug. 2--Lloyds TSB, Britain's fifth-largest bank, is seeing strong growth from its insurance arm Scottish Widows as more of its High Street banking customers buy savings and pensions products to protect their futures....

Evening Standard, London, market report column.
August 2, 2006... Aug. 2--Four years ago, shares in Rupert Murdoch's satellite broadcaster BSkyB were changing hands at almost 900p. Today, they are trading at about half that and, according to one influential broker, are still looking fully valued. ...

Grosvenor Square Marriott bought by strategic hotels.
August 2, 2006... Aug. 2--The Marriott Hotel on Grosvenor Square has been snapped up for [pounds sterling]103 million by the American hotel property investor and management group Strategic Hotels & Resorts. The 236-bedroom hotel in Mayfair, adjacent to the...

Xstrata boss confident on cash for Canada buy.
August 2, 2006... Aug. 2--Mick Davis, boss of acquisitive Anglo-Swiss mining group Xstrata, said today he was confident major shareholders would support a massive looming rights issue as he unveiled first-half profits up by 83 percent. The cash call will be...

McCarthy chief set to get a [pounds sterling]9m goodbye in takeover.
August 2, 2006... Aug. 2--The boss of retirement homes builder McCarthy & Stone, who is recommending a [pounds sterling]1.1 billion takeover of his own company, is set for a [pounds sterling]9 million retirement, helped by generous provisions in his contract....

Mittal steeled to pay higher price for Arcelor merger.
August 2, 2006... Aug. 2--London-based steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal faces a fresh hurdle in the merger of his Mittal Steel Company with European champion Arcelor after Brazilian financial regulator CVM said last night he must make a public offer for...

Toyota sales in front of Ford's in US for first time.
August 2, 2006... Aug. 2--The American car market was reeling today after it emerged that Japanese car-maker Toyota outsold Ford in July for the first time to become America's second-biggest car-seller after General Motors. Demand for fuel-efficient vehicles...

Splashing out for tax-break villas on new islands in the sun.
August 2, 2006... Byline: James Rossiter Aug. 2--A tiny string of islands off West Africa is fast becoming the latest hot-spot for jet-setting British property investors. House prices buoyed by November's introduction of direct charter flights from the...

French court to oversee revamp at Eurotunnel.
August 2, 2006... Byline: Ross Tieman Aug. 2--The Paris commercial court is today expected to place Anglo-French Channel tunnel operator under court protection and begin supervising talks aimed at a financial restructuring. Eurotunnel chief executive...

Booming Barclays storms to [pounds sterling]3.7bn.
August 3, 2006... Byline: Nick Goodway Aug. 3--Barclays Bank today outstripped its High Street rivals with a massive surge in first-half profits despite continuing problems at its Barclaycard business. Britain's third-largest bank saw its profits leap...

Minerva 'winner of the young's brewery auction'.
August 3, 2006... Aug. 3--Property group Minerva is poised to emerge as surprise winner of the year-long contest to redevelop the Young's brewery site in Wandsworth. Minerva has reportedly beaten off stiff competition to buy the celebrated site where the Ram...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.
August 3, 2006... Aug. 3--LOOKS LIKE RON NOADES plans to spend some more of the [pounds sterling]22 million he got for selling Crystal Palace to Mark Goldberg, back in 1998. A keen golfer, Noades was spotted this week playing a round at The Addington, an...

Sky Radio News signs up with UBC Media.
August 3, 2006... Aug. 3--UBC Media, the digital radio specialist, has signed a deal to distribute Sky Radio News as part of the package it distributes to more than 250 radio stations nationwide. Sky News Radio is a spin-off from the satellite broadcaster's Sky...

Rights issue costs push Invensys into red again.
August 3, 2006... Aug. 3--Engineering group Invensys slipped back into the red during the last quarter, but only due to the [pounds sterling]55 million cost of carrying out its [pounds sterling]341 million rights issue which marked the end of five years of...

Eurotunnel on track for a deal by end of September.
August 3, 2006... Aug. 3--A financial restructuring of overborrowed Channel tunnel operator Eurotunnel could be struck within two months, according to lawyers for the company and key creditors. "An agreement between the creditors could be finalised by...

Jaguar sell-off on cards as Ford launches big review.
August 3, 2006... Aug. 3--Luxury car-maker Jaguar could soon be up for sale. Troubled American parent Ford has hired veteran Wall Street banker Kenneth Leet to conduct a strategic review of its businesses. The announcement accompanied news that fresh losses are...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.
August 3, 2006... Byline: Anthony Hilton Aug. 3--The London Stock Exchange yesterday rather gleefully announced the first-ever initial public offering (IPO) by an American company on the main market here. The added spice was that it came on the very day...

Bank ponders conflicting signals on interest rates.
August 3, 2006... Aug. 3--The Bank of England faces a tough decision on interest rates today. The odds on an increase have risen with inflationary indicators all moving upwards but the latest poll of analysts by Reuters reveals that still only seven out of 46...

Bidders in wings as ITV's Allen goes.
August 3, 2006... Aug. 3--ITV's board faces a crisis meeting next Tuesday to rubber-stamp the departure details of its chief executive Charles Allen amid growing talk of renewed takeover bids for the commercial broadcaster. Allen is still in negotiations...

Jewellery retailer Signet lined up for [pounds sterling]2 billion bid.
August 3, 2006... Aug. 3--Signet, the owner of the H Samuel and Ernest Jones jewellery stores, is at the centre of bid speculation today amid hopes that private-equity groups Apax and KKR have approached the company. Shares in Signet, which is the world's...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.
August 3, 2006... Byline: Mickey Clark Aug. 3--Shareholders of GlaxoSmith-Kline must have been passing around their own anti-depressants yesterday following a sharp fall in the value of the shares amid fears the drugs giant could soon be facing increased...

Sales cheer at Morrisons as recovery gathers pace.
August 3, 2006... Aug. 3--Sir Ken Morrison, chairman of Britain's fourth-largest supermarkets group, Wm Morrison, today hailed a 6.6 percent rise in like-for-like sales in the 25 weeks to 23 July, or 4.6 percent excluding fuel, as evidence that the group's...

VAT fraud epidemic so costly it upsets country's trade figures.
August 3, 2006... Byline: James McLean Aug. 3--Major fraud has greatly increased in the past few months and is heading for record levels. A report by accountancy group KPMG shows the South-East is at the centre of a massive fraud epidemic, with recorded...

Unilever sales and profits on the climb despite commodity costs.
August 3, 2006... Byline: Robert Miller Aug. 3--Unilever, maker of Hellmann's mayonnaise, Lipton tea, Dove soap and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, lifted turnover by 6 percent to [pounds sterling]13.5 billion in the first half of the year. Patrick Cescau,...

Apple warns on accounts in options probe.
August 4, 2006... Aug. 4--Apple Computer, maker of the iconic iPod MP3 music player and Apple Mac computer, warned last night that its accounts for the past four years were unreliable and that it would delay its next quarterly earnings announcement because of...

BA flies to [pounds sterling]195m as business travel soars.
August 4, 2006... Byline: Robert Miller Aug. 4--British Airways' operating profit soared by nearly 20 percent to [pounds sterling]211 million in the first quarter of its financial year, boosted by a strong rise in business passengers travelling from...

Energy sell-off banks chosen.
August 4, 2006... Aug. 4--Three of the City's largest investment banks have won Government mandates to oversee the partial sale of its 65 percent stake in nuclear power group British Energy that could raise more than [pounds sterling]2 billion. After what...

Caudwell poised to pick up millions in Phones4U sale.
August 4, 2006... Aug. 4--John Caudwell, founder of Caudwell Communications, owner of Phones4U and other businesses, is set to receive a massive windfall when he sells the company for around [pounds sterling]1.1 billion, possibly this weekend. The mobile phone...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.
August 4, 2006... Aug. 4--COULD ED RICHARDS EMERGE as a surprise casualty of the ITV putsch? It's always been supposed that if Stephen Carter, outgoing head of the regulator Ofcom succeeds Charles Allen, an almighty row will ensue. Meanwhile, Carter's job at the...

Mystery buyers stir up coffee.
August 4, 2006... Aug. 4--Expect to pay more for coffee in the next few months. Prices have surged on commodity markets and show little sign of abating, thanks to a shortage of robusta beans and a rise in speculative buying. As a result, prices of benchmark...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.
August 4, 2006... Byline: Anthony Hilton Aug. 4--There's an old joke about a country boy being asked directions and telling the lost couple that if they really wanted to go to that specific destination they would be well advised not to start from here. ...

Signet chief in line for [pounds sterling]9m pay-off on takeover.
August 4, 2006... Byline: James Rossiter Aug. 4--The boss of the Ernest Jones-to-H Samuel jewellery stores owner Signet can look forward to a [pounds sterling]9 million payday should a pair of private-equity houses launch a takeover of the business. ...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.
August 4, 2006... Byline: Mickey Clark Aug. 4--Shares in pubs chain operator Mitchells & Butlers were riding high today, propelled by talk that another bid for the company may be on the way. They stood out among second-liners with a jump of 28 3/4p to a...

SABMiller swallows Foster's Indian division for [pounds sterling]63m.
August 4, 2006... Aug. 4--Brewer SABMiller continued its global expansion today with a $120 million ([pounds sterling]63.6 million) deal to buy the Indian assets of Australian brewer Foster's. The deal buys FTSE 100-listed SABMiller one brewery to add to its...

ODL 'muscles in on City Index takeover of IFX'.
August 4, 2006... Aug. 4--Spread-betting and foreign exchange trading group IFX is reported to have received a fresh takeover approach from rival ODL Securities. The approach was reportedly rejected by IFX, which has already inked an agreed takeover at 180p a...

US hedge fund scuppers [pounds sterling]346m offer for Telent.
August 4, 2006... Byline: James Rossiter Aug. 4--Telecoms supplier Telent, the rump of the old Marconi telecoms firm, failed at the last hurdle today to sell itself for [pounds sterling]346 million to US private-equity house Fortress. A clutch of the...

Qatar fund ties up with UBS in race for Thames Water.
August 4, 2006... Aug. 4--Qatar's state-owned investment fund has joined up with Swiss bank UBS to join the bidding for Thames Water, which is being auctioned for [pounds sterling]7 billion by its German owner, utility group RWE AG. According to reports, part of...

Equity firms size up Bacardi amid reports of NY flotation.
August 7, 2006... Aug. 7--Private equity firms in Britain and the US are believed to be running their rule over Bacardi, the family controlled Italian drinks group that is working hard to compete for acquisitions with listed global giants headed by Britain's...

ABI recommends leading audit firms shed clients.
August 7, 2006... Aug. 7--The Association of British Insurers today called for leading audit firms to be obliged to shed clients if they build an "excessive" market share. The recommendation, in an ABI response to a consultation by the UK auditing regulator, the...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.
August 7, 2006... Aug. 7--SLOWDOWN IN OUTPUT REHEATS RATE RISE DEBATE: Industrial production slowed down unexpectedly in June, reigniting debate on the Bank of England's shock decision to raise interest rates last week. Official figures released today, and...

BP Alaska shutdown sends oil rocketing.
August 7, 2006... Byline: Robert Lea Aug. 7--BP is shutting down its massive Alaskan oilfield operations at Prudhoe Bay after another oil spillage. The closure of the field -- the biggest in the US and accounting for 10 percent of BP's worldwide daily...

Multiplex in a legal fight over White City.
August 7, 2006... Aug. 7--Australian construction giant Multiplex, already stuck in a legal quagmire over delay in completion of Wembley stadium, faces a [pounds sterling]100 million legal battle over escalating costs in its construction of the [pounds...

Pendragon's margins are crunched by Vardy takeover.
August 7, 2006... Aug. 7--The [pounds sterling]500 million takeover of Reg Vardy has sent profit margins diving at Pendragon, Britain's biggest motor dealer. Added revenues from Vardy should see Pendragon's annual sales break through [pounds sterling]5 billion...

Caudwell rings up 'fair' [pounds sterling]1.5bn from Phones4U.
August 7, 2006... Byline: Ross Tieman Aug. 7--Mobile phone retailing pioneer John Caudwell has sold the business empire he founded 19 years ago to a pair of private-equity firms for [pounds sterling]1.46 billion. Caudwell, a 53-year-old fitness fanatic...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.
August 7, 2006... Aug. 7--IT WAS ALWAYS SUSPECTED that banks were not averse to buying themselves positions in industry league tables. Now comes confirmation -- courtesy of Daniel Palmer, head of global capital markets at HSBC, and quoted in The Banker. HSBC, he...

Easyjet prices take off as ticket sales boom.
August 7, 2006... Byline: Robert Lea Aug. 7--Easyjet customers are paying 17 percent more for their tickets than a year ago, according to latest figures. There is such a big holidaymaker demand for budget airline flights this summer that easyJet...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.
August 7, 2006... Byline: Anthony Hilton Aug. 7--It would be hard to find a greater example of the gulf between the City and the country than in the attitudes to Thames Water. German utility RWE has decided to sell the business it paid [pounds sterling]7...

ITV chiefs in a huddle over size of pay-off for Allen.
August 7, 2006... Aug. 7--The board of ITV meets today to decide the pay-off for Charles Allen, chief executive of the independent broadcaster for the past two-and-a-half years. The [pounds sterling]1.85 million-a-year boss is expected to announce his departure...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.
August 7, 2006... Byline: Mickey Clark Aug. 7--City investors were hit by a triple whammy today that saw shares extend last week's losses. News of the shutdown of BP's Prudhoe Bay oil pipeline in Alaska, the impending strike at the world's biggest...

Spowart on line to bonanza after SMG buys website.
August 7, 2006... Aug. 7--Jim Spowart, one of the pioneers of online banking, could share a [pounds sterling]15 million jackpot if his latest venture, a consumer price comparison website, takes off. SMG, the Scottish media group behind STV and Virgin Radio, is...

Merrill fined [pounds sterling]150,000 for failures over trades.
August 7, 2006... Byline: James Rossiter Aug. 7--The City's financial watchdog has slammed US giant investment bank Merrill Lynch with the biggest fine of its kind for fundamental reporting failures in its massive trade in international equities over nine...

BetonSports boss's bail hope.
August 7, 2006... Aug. 7--David Carruthers, the Scottish former chief executive of London-listed online gambling company BetonSports, is expected to be freed on bail of $1 million ([pounds sterling]525,000) this week by a court in St Louis, Missouri. ...

Taxman investigates Candy brothers.
August 7, 2006... Byline: James Rossiter Aug. 7--Two of London's hottest young property entrepreneurs, Nick and Christian Candy, are under Government investigation over their tax affairs. They are behind some of the most exclusive residential schemes for...

Sizzler from Premier as shopping spree pays off.
August 7, 2006... Byline: Sarah Marks Aug. 7--Soaring sales of vegetarian sausages and other healthy ready meals helped Branston Pickle owner Premier Foods deliver a sizzling set of half-year figures today with like-for-like trading profits up 4.6 percent....

Next-door bets at Sports Cafe.
August 7, 2006... Aug. 7--Sports Cafe is cashing in on the popularity of sports gambling by opening a string of betting shops close to or next to its pubs. This follows a successful trial run for Sports Cafe Bet in Birmingham, in which a small profit has...

Passages to India prove the big growth market for BAA.
August 8, 2006... Aug. 8--Flights to India are booming. Travel to the sub-continent is the largest single growing air market into and out of the UK -- up 50 percent over the past year, according to latest figures from BAA. In its first month under the ownership...

Split-trust bosses face ban from City.
August 8, 2006... Byline: Robert Lea Aug. 8--Two City investment chiefs face a ban from working in financial services as moves are being made to finally draw the [pounds sterling]400 million split-capital investment trusts scandal to a close. City...

All eyes on the Fed for an end to US rate rises.
August 8, 2006... Byline: James Rossiter Aug. 8--City traders were on tenterhooks today waiting to see whether the Federal Reserve will hold US interest rates at 5.25 percent, the first pause after 17 successive rises over the past two years. ...

Bear Stearns to take two-thirds of new Canary Wharf block.
August 8, 2006... Aug. 8--US investment bank Bear Stearns is gearing up for a big expansion in London after agreeing to locate its European headquarters in a new development at Canary Wharf. The bank, which already has offices in the vicinity, has agreed to take...

NTL feeling the pinch from rivals.
August 8, 2006... Aug. 8--Britain's largest cable operator, NTL, is starting to feel the bite of intense competition, with its latest figures today revealing it is losing both cable and telephone customers and suffered a dramatic slowdown in new sign-ups for...

Cider adds the fizz for Scottish & Newcastle.
August 8, 2006... Byline: Sarah Marks Aug. 8--Soaring sales of cider, now re-branded as a cool adult summer drink, helped Britain's biggest brewer, Scottish & Newcastle, turn in better-than-expected profits in the first six months of the year, with pre-tax...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.
August 8, 2006... Aug. 8--FORMER DRAGONS' DEN STAR, Rachel Elnaugh, is climbing aboard Noel Edmonds' spacecraft as some sort of cosmic self-help guru. In an interview, the dragon who saw her own business, Red Letter Days, fail spectacularly, tells how she uses...

Mergermarket pair scoop [pounds sterling]16m each in Pearson sale.
August 8, 2006... Aug. 8--A former British Army major and his financial journalist chum bagged [pounds sterling]16 million apiece today after selling their corporate information business Mergermarket to Financial Times group Pearson for [pounds sterling]101...

Deloitte boss is best paid accountant at [pounds sterling]4 million.
August 8, 2006... Aug. 8--Deloitte's senior partner John Connolly was paid [pounds sterling]4.1 million last year, cementing his credentials as the best-paid accountant and one of the best-paid executives in the UK. After a storming year for its accountants...

Accounting probe puts iSoft in crisis.
August 8, 2006... Byline: James Rossiter Aug. 8--An accounting scandal has hit the deeply troubled NHS software supplier iSoft, prompting the immediate suspension of one of its top executive directors. A key supplier to a [pounds sterling]6.2 billion...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.
August 8, 2006... Byline: Anthony Hilton Aug. 8--It was estimated before the Bank of England's monetary policy committee raised interest rates last week that more than 100,000 people could go bankrupt in Britain this year. With the cost of borrowing now a...

ITV chief Allen to receive [pounds sterling]2.8m pay-off to step down in January.
August 8, 2006... Aug. 8--ITV chief executive Charles Allen will announce today that he will stand down in January to help his successor settle into the post. Following an all-day board meeting at ITV's Gray's Inn Road headquarters yesterday, Allen is expected...

[pounds sterling]800m Standard Chartered rules out Korea credit card buy.
August 8, 2006... Aug. 8--Standard Chartered has dropped its interest in the [pounds sterling]2.7 billion auction for Korea's biggest credit card firm. The British-based bank which is one of Asia and the Middle East's most important financial services companies,...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.
August 8, 2006... Byline: Mickey Clark Aug. 8--Prospects are looking a lot brighter these days at that old takeover favourite Rank Group under new chief executive Ian Burke. Shares in the Gala Bingo and Grosvenor casino operator continued to rally off...

World Cup puts [pounds sterling]1.1 million boot into sales at Moss Bros.
August 8, 2006... Aug. 8--Moss Bros chief Philip Mountford today blamed the World Cup for the first decline in like-for-like sales for four years. The well-established recovery at the men's clothing chain was rocked by football fervour, with core customers...