Brazil’s feel-good factor

3rd June, 2008

Just as the economies of the West embark on a traumatic downturn, Brazil’s has hit something of a sweet spot, says Merryn Somerset Webb

Equities without tears

6th May, 2008

Actively Managed Funds Struggle To Beat The Market. Anthony Garner On The Thinking Investor’s Alternative: Index-tracking ETFs

Bullish on meat

6th May, 2008

Let food be your medicine, said Hippocrates. John Stepek fancies a good steak

A golden age of philanthropy? Bah! Humbug!

6th May, 2008

If people won’t give generously when times are good, what hope is there when times are hard? Mike Dickson examines the charitable impulse in the first of a new series on philanthropy.

Prescott’s flat-building boom is over – except for the odd £75m penthouse

6th May, 2008

The security-conscious super-rich of London are retreating to luxury apartment blocks and shunning traditional townhouses, says Ross Clark, in his first monthly property column

Mind Your Own Beeswax

6th May, 2008

Veronica, daughter of The Spectator’s Dot Wordsworth, provides a monthly guide to the jargon of the financial world

House of cards that may stand steady

6th May, 2008

In The First Of His Monthly Speculator Columns, Ian Cowie Offers Share Tips And Not-so-idle Speculations

Relief for luxury brands as red carpet rolled out for Oscars

13th February, 2008

AS THE strike by the Writers Guild of America comes to its conclusion, Hollywood’s full focus can finally return to the Oscars.

Delta-Northwest tie-up to trigger shake-up in US skies

13th February, 2008

BUSINESS travellers to the US will have long since concluded that America has too many airlines.

BC pulls off Intelsat deal despite credit crunch

6th February, 2008

As a company that blasts satellites into space then beams TV programmes to remote corners of the world, Intelsat should be among the business world’s most exciting entities.

BSkyB resilient to downturn

6th February, 2008

JAMES Murdoch probably had few delusions that stepping up to become chairman of BSkyB, replacing his father Rupert, would make all his problems disappear.

Pubs giant starts fight to punch above its weight

6th February, 2008

WHAT is it with the drinks sector? No sooner has Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) agreed – finally – to a bid from Carlsberg and Heineken than Punch Taverns, the pubs group, proposes an £11bn ($21.6bn, E14.7bn) merger with Mitchells & Butlers (M&B), owner of the All Bar One and Harvester chains.

Benefits of Euronext deal starting to show for NYSE

6th February, 2008

NYSE Euronext’s shares have gained traction with investors this year thanks to John Thain, in more ways than one. Thain was instrumental, as the NYSE’s then chief executive, in putting the merger together. But his abrupt departure to take the top job at Merrill Lynch has helped too, by removing some mergers and acquisitions (M&A) risk from NYSE Euronext’s future.

French banks to land their national rival

6th February, 2008

AND so the latest round of wheeling and dealing by French bankers gets under way – only this time there is considerably less scandal.

British Land losses signify the shape of things to come

6th February, 2008

IT WAS a curiously upbeat Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) Association that briefed journalists last week on the state of Britain’s young Reit market.

Risk-adverse Europe wastes home-grown talent

6th February, 2008

As the business world mulls Yahoo!’s attractions for Microsoft, Europe is going to receive little attention amid this battle out in cyberspace.

Taxpayer loses as Olivant quits

6th February, 2008

AS AN investment banker by training, Luqman Arnold, along with the rest of the Olivant team, was always going to focus on the sums, and little else, when it came to salvaging Northern Rock.

Hayward takes steady steps in his task to overhaul BP

6th February, 2008

TONY Hayward was dropped into the hot seat at BP in May 2007 on the abrupt resignation of Lord Browne; nine months on, Browne’s shadow continues to dog his every step.

Seven Days in Business

6th February, 2008

Why Martin Sorrell’s WPP has been unfairly discounted

30th January, 2008

Investors’ loss of faith in the shares of companies vulnerable to the decline in consumer confidence has inevitably hit the advertising sector.