Friday, August 22nd, 2008 Talk about buying into the designer lifestyle. A spivvish man with a diabolical mien sits cross-legged on a Fendi sofa and glowers out of the pages of my Financial Times. On closer inspection, the ad turns out to be for apartments and penthouses in the Skygardens tower in Dubai’s international financial [...]
August 20th, 2008 Nice comment piece by Howard Davies in today’s Financial Times, in which the former chairman of the FSA warns politicians and regulators of the dangers of standing in the way of creative destruction. As one listens to Mr Brown and Alistair Darling, chancellor of the exchequer, one can hear them hesitantly trying [...]
August 13th, 2008 The wall of silence from the sponsors of the Beijing Olympics over the human rights abuses committed by China will be harmful to their long-term prospects in the world’s most populous nation, according to Sophie Richardson, a director of Human Rights Watch. Writing in the Huffington Post, Richardson accuses the major sponsors [...]
By Ian Fraser The Sunday Times August 10th, 2008 An ousting is more likely to prove successful if shareholders gang up behind the scenes than if they shout their displeasure from the rooftops Anthony Bolton, the Fidelity fund manager who formerly ran the investment group’s top-performing special situations fund, last week gave some insights into [...]
By Ian Fraser The Sunday Times August 10th, 2008 Sir Peter Burt, the former chief executive of the Bank of Scotland, has fired a broadside at proponents of “fair value” accounting, including Sir David Tweedie, and accused them of exacerbating the effects of the credit crunch. Tweedie, chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, has [...]
By Ian Fraser The Sunday Times August 10th, 2008 The leaders of five business organisations in Scotland have joined forces to urge the government to approve the Trump Organisation’s controversial plans for a £1 billion golf, leisure and residential complex in Aberdeenshire. The rare display of unanimity comes as tourism figures are down and the [...]
By Ian Fraser The Sunday Times August 10th, 2008 The recruitment firm wants to move across Scotland and into northern England Rise Group, a recruitment business acquired by Sir David Murray’s private equity business Murray Capital in 2006, has declared an ambition to expand across Scotland and into northern England. The move follows the company’s [...]
By Ian Fraser The Sunday Times August 10th, 2008 Big Olympics contracts have lifted RMJM and Aggreko As four billion viewers worldwide tuned into the Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremony last Friday, most were unaware that two Scottish companies have ignored any human rights concerns to play a significant role in making the extravaganza possible. Glasgow-based [...]
August 9th 2008 Gordon Brown falls some way short of being as evil as Adolf Hitler but, having lost Glasgow East, he is looking increasingly desperate. This clip, a “mash up” of the 2005 film Mein Fuerher, tries to get under the skin of Mr Brown’s current mindset. By the way, it helps if you [...]
By Ian Fraser Scottish Business Insider Deals & Dealmakers Yearbook 2008 August 2008 This was a record breaking year for deals – but it seems unlikely that next year will be. Ian Fraser reports. IN SPRING 2007, Scottish dealmaking was riding the crest of a wave. Credit remained cheap, optimism was running high, valuations were [...]