By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald July 30th, 2006 WTO: talks collapse With discussions suspended, global trade agreements are in danger of becoming an unwholesome tangle of bilateral deals In the end Doha died not with a bang but a whimper, with media coverage of its collapse being squeezed off the front pages by the escalating [...]
By Ian Fraser The Scotsman July 15th, 2006 ANYONE who has suffered the ignominy of being turned down for a home loan – perhaps because they struggled to prove their earnings or have been classed as a high-risk borrower – is about to find things a whole lot easier. A price war, fuelled by renewed [...]
By Ian Fraser World Business July 10th, 2006 Brazil’s leading cosmetics firm is a champion of good causes and that has hit the mark with both investors and consumers, writes Ian Fraser. Antonio Luiz da Cunha Seabra, founder of Natura Cosmeticos, is a man with a mission. He believes the cosmetics company he founded from [...]
By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald July 2nd, 2006 MALL: RENOVATION HENDERSON Global Investors has unveiled ambitious plans for the transformation of the St James Centre in Edinburgh, more than doubling the retail space in a development which could cost up to £200 millon. The London-based fund management company, which bought the complex at the east [...]
By Ian Fraser The Herald July 2nd, 2006 STANDARD Life, the life insurer which on Wednesday secured a 98 per cent vote from nearly 1.6 million of its members to demutualise and float on the London Stock Exchange, yesterday experienced an IT systems failure right across its business. As the Edinburgh-based financial services group uses a [...]