News

Your daily news update straight from the City PM newsroom in London

Life in the fast lane on the Cote d’Azur

November 16, 2009

ANYBODY with even a passing interest in Formula One motor racing will have seen the Fairmont Monte Carlo hotel, although they may not realise it. The hotel is perched on the edge of the harbour and forms the famous tunnel, one of the best known parts of the Monaco Grand Prix circuit. For anyone keen [...]
Motown and soul-food come to the home of the jet set

November 16, 2009

THERE’S a reason that Monte Carlo is known as the playground of the rich and famous. Not only is it home to some of the world’s wealthiest men and women – Philip Green, Shirley Bassey, EasyJet’s Stelios and David Coulthard are among the principality’s residents – but it also draws an entire firmament of stars [...]
EXBARRISTER FINDS A RAFT OF USES FOR CITY’S USELESS BANKERS

November 16, 2009

A RATHER quaint looking little book lands on The Capitalist’s desk and promptly causes a bit of a stir. Said tome has been penned – if you can call it that – by Alex Steuart Williams, a former barrister turned cartoonist and feature film animator (with movie credits such as The Lion King and Harry [...]
DISCERNING EYE

November 16, 2009

Gerlach Jacobs, chief executive of INGWholesale Banking in the UK and Middle East, with ING’s UK head of comms Adrian Simpson and Eli Gregan-Jones of Standard Bank – the lucky winner of City PM’s recent competition to win £1,000 worth of art on display at the ING Discerning Eye exhibition. The exhibition, on at the [...]
Car Giant drives into the red but sees more models leave the showrooms

November 16, 2009

CAR GIANT, the west London-based vehicle warehouse, plunged into loss-making territory last year, it emerged yesterday. The company was down £57,000 compared to profit in 2007 of £2.4m, despite increasing the number of used cars it sold by three per cent. It shifted nearly 50,000 hatchbacks and saloons over 12 months against a backdrop of [...]
Shares inUBCsoar after it cuts its pre-tax losses

November 16, 2009

Shares in UBC Media soared 41 per cent yesterday after the radio content supplier said its first-half pre-tax loss had narrowed by 51 per cent to £258,000. UBC Media, the largest independent producer of radio programming for the BBC, reported group revenue up nine per cent to £1.94m and announced a maiden dividend of 0.102p [...]
GM starts to pay state aid back early

November 16, 2009

AILING US car giant General Motors (GM) yesterday said it would start repaying $6.7bn (£4bn) in government bailout loans, as it reported a smaller than expected $1.2bn loss for the three months to the end of September. In its first set of results since emerging from bankruptcy in July, the owner of Opel and Vauxhall [...]
GE Capital agrees loan with Jaguara

November 16, 2009

JAGUAR Land Rover (JLR) yesterday secured a £170m working capital facility from GE Capital. The five-year loan will help the money-losing car company, owned by India’s Tata Motors, as it is struggles in the global financial downturn. The loan will be drawn down as soon as vehicles are made in its three UK production lines. [...]
MBL announces a tie-up with US giant Best Buy

November 16, 2009

MBL shares rocketed yesterday after the UK distributor of home entertainment products said it had signed a contract with US retail giant Best Buy for the exclusive supply of its DVDs, BluRay disks and CDs. MBL shares closed up 9.62 per cent at 171p. The contract between MBLand Best Buy is for an initial period [...]
Kenmore starts sell-off

November 16, 2009

Property fund Kenmore European Industrial – part of collapsed property firm Kenmore – yesterday announced it had sold a Paris property for €1.14m (£1.01m) in a bid to raise cash. Managing director Rob Brook, who is believed to be working on a management buyout of the firm, said that the sale demonstrated the group’s strategy [...]