The Evening Standard (London, England) articles from July 2007

The Evening Standard (London, England) archives from July 2007

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.(Column)
July 2, 2007... Jul. 2--BARCLAYS DELAYS ABN AMRO TILT AHEAD OF COURT RULING: Barclays' board, led by John Varley, today extended the deadline for the formal launch of its agreed e63 billion ([pounds sterling]44 billion) takeover bid for Dutch bank ABN Amro....

Evening Standard, London, Chris Blackhurst column.
July 2, 2007... Byline: Chris Blackhurst Jul. 2--NOW IS BROWN'S CHANCE FOR A TAX-HAVEN PURGE: A new Prime Minister, a new dawn. One of the abiding mysteries to me about Gordon Brown and his circle is what happened to the firebrands before they acceded to...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
July 2, 2007... Jul. 2--Tory leader David Cameron has a better insight than most into the Tiger Tiger nightclub, scene of Friday's botched terror attack on Haymarket. He was a non-executive director of Urbium, the late-night bar company that owns the Tiger...

Eurostar joins alliance to step up the airlines battle.
July 2, 2007... Jul. 2--Europe's leading high-speed train operators are banding together in an attempt to prise even more passengers off the airlines. Eurostar, the train operator on Britain's high-speed link from London under the Channel to the...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
July 2, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Jul. 2--SOMEONE HAS TO BE WRONG AS MARKET'S MOOD ALTERS: There is a definite sense in the market that sentiment is changing. Private-equity giant TPG has withdrawn from the battle for retailer Coles, the largest bid...

Financial Services Authority slams city on insider trading controls.
July 2, 2007... Byline: Robert Lea Jul. 2--City bankers and brokers were today accused by the Financial Services Authority of shocking complacency over the epidemic of insider dealing. The soaring amount of dodgy share dealing is now set to spark a...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
July 2, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Jul. 2--ICELANDERS PUT A CHILL IN THEIR RETAIL FORECAST: Retailers face a tough few months ahead, and this time they will not be able to blame it on the wet and windy weather conditions. Icelandic broker Kaupthing...

Citigroup's Canary Wharf headquarters changes hands.
July 2, 2007... Jul. 2--A flurry of deals has taken place at Canary Wharf, including the second most-expensive sale of a property in the UK. A new tower is also to be built with a garden more than 200 feet in the air. Banking giant Citigroup's European...

Virgin media boss in line for bid millions.
July 2, 2007... Byline: Nick Goodway Jul. 2--Steve Burch, the chief executive of Virgin Media who only took charge of the former NTL in January, will make tens of millions of pounds if it succumbs to a [pounds sterling]5 billion takeover bid from private...

Evening Standard, London, Christopher Fildes column.(Column)
July 6, 2007... Byline: Christopher Fildes Jul. 6--The best day in a Chancellor's life, as Alistair Darling will not have the chance to discover, comes early. "We have examined the books," he can say. "The position is grave." Then he can get all the bad...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
July 6, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Jul. 6--There is a revolution taking place in the investment management industry in Britain. In the past few years, a new generation of bright people armed with the latest technology and investment techniques have...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
July 6, 2007... Jul. 6--How many free flights on its [pounds sterling]3000-a-time business-class-only services from London to New York did it take Eos to persuade Venus Williams to wear a baseball cap at Wimbledon emblazoned with the logo of the start-up...

CORRECTION: Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
July 6, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Jul. 6--The Evening Standard has moved an updated version of the column slugged EV-MARKET-COL, filed by McClatchy-Tribune Regional News for Jul. 6. Please delete or kill the earlier version and use the new one...

Evening Standard, London, Christopher Fildes column.(Column)
July 13, 2007... Byline: Christopher Fildes Jul. 13--THIS STITCH-UP WILL NOT STOP THE IMF FROM UNRAVELLING: Nice work if you can get it: $391,440 ([pounds sterling]192,897) a year on a five-year contract, with an-other $70,000 for expenses, first-class air...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
July 13, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Jul. 13--DISTURBING TRUTHS BEHIND LAW FIRMS' PURSUIT OF PROFIT: Things have come to a pretty pass in the legal business when a former top lawyer at Freshfields, one of the most distinguished of London's firms,...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
July 13, 2007... Jul. 13--HERE'S ONE FOR THE CITY EGGHEADS to get their brains around. Bank of England Deputy Governor Sir John Gieve warns that interest rates may have to rise yet again. "The issue for me is have we done enough to bring inflation back on a...

Commercial bidders home in on housing.
July 13, 2007... Byline: Mira Bar-Hillel Jul. 13--The sky-high prices of central London homes are attracting a growing number of commercial developers into the residential sector. A one-acre site on Draycott Avenue in Chelsea, known as The Clearings,...

City's favourite is new top watchdog.
July 13, 2007... Byline: Hugo Duncan Jul. 13--The City got its man today when former investment banker Hector Sants was named as the new head of its main watchdog, the Financial Services Authority. He takes over as chief executive from John Tiner, who...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
July 13, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Jul. 13--FOOTSIE AT A SEVEN-YEAR HIGH AS DOW SETS RECORD: The FTSE 100 index raced back above 6700 today in response to a stonking run in New York that saw the Dow set a new record overnight. Footsie was quickly...

Tube botch-up attacked by Metronet's new boss.
July 13, 2007... Byline: Robert Lea Jul. 13--Gordon Brown's part-privatisation of the London Underground was a botched job from the start and will be unworkable unless Mayor Ken Livingstone moderates his continuing hostility to whole project. That is...

Evening Standard, London, Chris Blackhurst column.(Column)
July 16, 2007... Byline: Chris Blackhurst Jul. 16--My first job in journalism was on a law magazine. Part of the Euromoney stable, it was called International Financial Law Review. While other young, aspiring reporters were busy covering human dramas...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
July 16, 2007... Jul. 16--CHRISTINE WALKER is retiring from the advertising frontline -- and has let the colleagues in the industry she is leaving have it with both barrels. The Zenith Media and Walker Media founder, writing in Campaign, blames the BlackBerry...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
July 16, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Jul. 16--With the Dutch court's decision last week to legitimise the sale of Chicago-based LaSalle Bank, the phoney war is over and the real battle for control of ABN Amro has begun. The consortium of Royal Bank of...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
July 16, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Jul. 16--Three private-equity companies have teamed up to buy Cadbury Schweppes' US drinks division for about [pounds sterling]7.5 billion. The Blackstone-led consortium, which also includes Kohlberg Kravis...

Reuben brothers land Oxford Airport.
July 20, 2007... Byline: Robert Lea Jul. 20--The billionaire Reuben brothers have bought tiny Oxford Airport with ambitious plans for it to take advantage of the business-jets boom and rival the likes of Farnborough, Luton and Northolt. Oxford Airport...

Fundraisers struggle in Alliance Boots buyout.
July 20, 2007... Byline: Simon English Jul. 20--Completion of the [pounds sterling]11 billion takeover of Alliance Boots could be delayed while bankers scratch around to secure financing. Although there is little doubt that the deal, the largest...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
July 20, 2007... Jul. 20--Two days, two very different recommendations. At the weekend, Sunday Telegraph readers were advised to buy soon-to-float Moneysupermarket shares. Those that did might want to find a way of re-calling their applications if they saw...

Dow family's Murdoch jitters as director quits.
July 20, 2007... Byline: Bill Condie Jul. 20--Bancroft family members wary of Rupert Murdoch's plans to buy their controlling stakes in Dow Jones are likely to be spooked by the comments of the respected board member who last night quit in protest,...

GDP growth spurt adds weight to rate-rise case.
July 20, 2007... Byline: Hugo Duncan Jul. 20--The British economy expanded more quickly than expected between April and June, boosting expectations that further interest rate rises are on the way. Government figures today showed that gross domestic...

Evening Standard, London, Christopher Fildes column.(Column)
July 20, 2007... Byline: Christopher Fildes Jul. 20--Welcome to the fray. Is finance a strong suit of yours? Think back to those Spectator board meetings when you and I would go through the accounts with Conrad and Barbara. Compared with the Mayor of...

Ashley sizing up a bid for Foot Locker.
July 20, 2007... Byline: Simon English Jul. 20--Deal-hungry Mike Ashley, the founder and deputy chairman of Sports Direct International, is looking to get involved in a [pounds sterling]2.25 billion break up of US sports shoes chain Foot Locker. Ashley...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
July 20, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Jul. 20--There has to be more to running a business than having an efficient balance sheet. Well, there is more to it, but one side effect of the credit-market bubble and the availability of almost unlimited amounts...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
July 20, 2007... Byline: Sarah Marks Jul. 20--FRIENDS PROVIDENT SETS PACE ON BID ACTION TALK: Heavy buying thrust Friends Provident into the spotlight today, with suggestions from some quarters that Axa may be mulling a bid. Almost 30 million shares...

[pounds sterling]100 million payouts total on cards as RAB fills the bonus pool.
July 23, 2007... Jul. 23--The hedge fund managers of RAB Capital are in for another bumper year of bonuses. RAB, whose boss Philip Richards was, at [pounds sterling]19 million, last year's second highest-paid executive director of a listed company (behind...

Russians clear Hambro of inflating reserves.
July 23, 2007... Jul. 23--Peter Hambro Mining was today cleared by the Russian Natural Resources ministry of inflating its reserve levels in financial announcements. The firm said that it had always believed its reserves had been conservatively stated and...

Nestle ditches products to slim down.
July 23, 2007... Jul. 23--Nestle, the world's biggest food company, is taking the axe to hundreds of products as it attempts to become a leaner, nimbler business. Among those being ditched in the UK are low-carb versions of KitKat and Rolo. KitKats in...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.(Column)
July 23, 2007... Jul. 23--WAR ON TERROR HELPS AUTONOMY DELIVER A RECORD [pounds sterling]20 MILLION: Software specialist Autonomy delivered record profits today after winning key contracts with blue-chip firms and intelligence agencies. The group, headed by...

Evening Standard, London, Chris Blackhurst column.(Column)
July 23, 2007... Byline: Chris Blackhurst Jul. 23--TOM'S GIFT MAY NOT BE ALL IT SEEMS: Turning on the BBC 10 o'clock news the other evening, there was Sir Tom Hunter, reclining in a garden in the south of France telling the world that he intends to give...

Lend Lease leads field to transform Elephant.
July 23, 2007... Byline: Hugo Duncan Jul. 23--Australian property developer Lend Lease has emerged as the front-runner in the battle to transform London's rundown Elephant & Castle in one of the largest regeneration schemes in Europe. The firm --...

Dominant Domino's to double stores.
July 23, 2007... Jul. 23--Domino's Pizza plans to more than double its store numbers in Britain to above 1000 -- an aggressive expansion plan for a company that is already ahead of rivals such as Pizza Hut. Unveiling profit for the half year to July up 35...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
July 23, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Jul. 23--DOOR IS OPEN FOR A SHAKE-UP IN INSURANCE: The best bet in the market today must be that Friends Provident and Resolution Life never make it to the altar. Details of the pair's merger talks were leaked on...

Poland bringing in workers to counter the exodus to Britain.
July 23, 2007... Jul. 23--Polish authorities are allowing thousands of Ukrainian and Russian workers into the country because the exodus of its own people to take jobs in Britain has left it with a massive shortage of labour. According to the Polish media,...

Untrendy Stringfellow laps up a [pounds sterling]2.9m profit.
July 23, 2007... Jul. 23--Peter Stringfellow might be regarded as relentlessly unfashionable, an antidote to all that is hip, but business keeps ticking over nicely at his Covent Garden club. The latest report and accounts show that profits at Stringfellow...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
July 23, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Jul. 23--Takeovers and mergers in the financial sector were back on the agenda among City investors today. Leading the way was Friends Provident, up 13.75p at 200p on turnover of more than 90 million shares, after...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
July 24, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Jul. 24--The management writer Peter Drucker famously remarked that the first rule in any crisis is to find a scapegoat. True to form, as the tremors from the American subprime lending meltdown reverberate with...

Fuller's rises to 'challenge of the English summer'.
July 24, 2007... Jul. 24--Anthony Fuller, who retires as chairman of London pubs group Fuller, Smith & Turner today, told his final meeting of shareholders at the Griffin Brewery in Chiswick that the 350-year-old company would survive the current inclement...

Misys on even keel as sell-offs pay dividends.
July 24, 2007... Jul. 24--The turnaround team at beleaguered software group Misys under chief executive Mike Lawrie appears to have stabilised the remaining business as it sells off large chunks of unwanted activities. Lawrie admitted there is much still to...

Playstation double hit costs SCi [pounds sterling]18 million.
July 24, 2007... Jul. 24--Lara Croft Tomb Raider video games producer SCi Entertainment today warned it will take an [pounds sterling]18 million hit after a double whammy from the launch of the PlayStation 3 console at the start of this year. Hardcore...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.(Company overview)(Column)
July 24, 2007... Jul. 24--IPHONE EXPERT WOLFSON ON THE GROWTH TRAIL WITH SONAPTIC DEAL: Electronics group Wolfson, riding high on the back of providing key technology for the Apple iPhone, has acquired micro-acoustic technology group Sonaptic for [pounds...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
July 24, 2007... Jul. 24--HAVE the Reuben brothers been sold a pup with their acquisition of Oxford Airport? Billionaires Simon and David, who are reckoned to have little experience of the aviation business, have bought the tiny Oxford airfield next door to Sir...

Russians up in arms on fake Kalashnikovs.
July 24, 2007... Byline: Allan Hall Jul. 24--The Kalashnikov rifle is 60 this year. But while there are tens of millions of them around the world and demand remains huge in our violent times, the Kremlin is fuming that it is missing out on massive profits...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
July 24, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Jul. 24--Shares were sent reeling today by evidence that rising interest rates and a strong pound are starting to put the brakes on Britain's economy. The surprise slump in business sentiment was signalled by the...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.(Column)
July 25, 2007... Jul. 25--SHAREHOLDERS PILE INTO NEW SHARE OFFER BY BARCLAYS: Barclays' new Far Eastern investors will see their stakes in the bank significantly scaled back after existing shareholders joined them in droves to take a punt on buying new shares...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
July 25, 2007... Jul. 25--WHO next for the wannabe wily corporate raiders Glenn Cooper, a sometime investment banker, and John Mayo, the sometime shareholder-value destroyer of Marconi? They may be bloodied over their plans for Vodafone but they remain unbowed....

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
July 25, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Jul. 25--Given how much money it makes from private equity, the accounting profession has been slow to leap to the defence of that heavily criticised sector, but with good reason -- it does not want to draw attention...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
July 25, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Jul. 25--Music publisher EMI Group hit a bum note with speculators today amid growing fears the proposed [pounds sterling]2.4 billion bid from private equity may have to be aborted. The shares fell 7 1/4p to 254p...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.(Column)
July 26, 2007... Jul. 26--NO TCHENGUIZ BACKING FOR QATARI TILT AT SAINSBURY'S: Robert Tchenguiz, the property investor who owns about 10 percent of Sainsbury's, has indicated he will not back a [pounds sterling]10.6 billion takeover offer for the supermarkets...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
July 26, 2007... Jul. 26--Friends Provident chief executive Philip Moore announced plans last November to triple new-business profits by 2008. The City applauded, but wondered where the capital to fund this expansion was coming from. Moore later backtracked and...

Evening Standard, London, Neil Collins column.(Column)
July 26, 2007... Byline: Neil Collins Jul. 26--If you wanted a demonstration of how the Third World is leap-frogging the First, Barclays has surely provided it this week. For years, we've fussed about the problems of paying for goods being made in the East...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
July 26, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Jul. 26--Resolution and Friends Provident have spent this week promoting their proposed merger on the grounds that the combination creates a group with capital, growth prospects and a well-managed back book. Today,...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
July 26, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Jul. 26--The subprime credit crunch loomed large over the Square Mile today, amid fears it may signal the end of the private-equity bids boom that has been financed by huge amounts of debt. It emerged overnight...

ABN drops backing for bid by Barclays.
July 30, 2007... Byline: Nick Goodway Jul. 30--ABN Amro today tore up its recommendation of the e66 billion ([pounds sterling]44 billion) takeover bid from Barclays saying it would now be treated in exactly the same way as the rival e77 billion offer from...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.(Column)
July 30, 2007... Jul. 30--MURDOCH GIVES DOW JONES OWNERS DEADLINE: News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch has given the Bancroft family until the close of business today to make a decision on his $5 billion ([pounds sterling]2.5 billion) offer for Dow Jones, it is...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
July 30, 2007... Jul. 30--Will Mark Thompson survive the perfect storm that will be whipped up around him in the autumn? In no particular order, the BBC director-general will hear the results of the independent inquiry into the doctored "hissy-fit" by Her Maj,...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
July 30, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Jul. 30--MAJOR TEST AHEAD FOR HEDGE FUNDS: Markets almost always fall out of bed in August for one very good reason: the head brokers, dealers and fund managers go off on holiday, telling their underlings to make...

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
July 30, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Jul. 30--ICI raced up 4212p to a new record high of 61912p after receiving an increased offer of 650p a share from Dutch rival Akzo Nobel over the weekend. But, just like Oliver Twist, the Dulux paint group says it...

Evening Standard, London, business briefs column.(Column)
July 31, 2007... Jul. 31--GM STEERS INTO BLACK: America's moribund motor industry showed signs of life today when General Motors made a rare profit of $891 million ([pounds sterling]440 million) in the second quarter. The world's biggest carmaker followed...

Evening Standard, London, Anthony Hilton column.(Column)
July 31, 2007... Byline: Anthony Hilton Jul. 31--It was appropriate, on the day that the Treasury Select Committee published its call for an examination of the way private equity is taxed in the UK, that a robust defence of the regime should appear in a...

Buoyant Beazley expects insurers to navigate floods.
July 31, 2007... Jul. 31--Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley brushed aside fears of huge payouts for the floods today as it reported record profits. The underwriter said it has set aside enough reserves to cover claims from policyholders whose homes and...

Evening Standard, London, City Spy column.(Column)
July 31, 2007... Jul. 31--RICHARD PYM gave his final presentations to hacks and analysts as chief executive of Alliance & Leicester last Friday morning as he handed over to David Bennett. So what's Pym, 57, planning next? "A long summer watching cricket....

Evening Standard, London, market report column.(Column)
July 31, 2007... Byline: Mickey Clark Jul. 31--BOOST FOR BG AS CHINESE BANK BUILDS [pounds sterling]128M STAKE: Oil and gas explorer BG Group is the latest UK blue-chip to find a major Chinese investor on its shareholder register during the past few days....