Home > Business > The Magazine > Investment

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Dare to dream and make your ultimate trip a reality

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests

Email registration

Free weekly email update

Great products and special offers for Spectator readers

Click here for great value events

Click here for exclusive articles, offers, tasting notes and discussion

Gilt-edged returns for troubled times

Alex Brummer

28th October, 2008

Traditionalists choose gold, National Savings and gilts. But the best time to buy shares is often when other people are fleeing into cash, argues Alex Brummer

The venture capital star performers that shone the brightest in 2007

6th February, 2008

For investors keen to provide seed capital to smaller businesses, buying shares in a venture capital trust (VCT) remains the easiest option.

BofA’s bid for Countrywide is a canny move

16th January, 2008

Shares in takeover targets are supposed to rise on confirmation of a bid approach; Countrywide Financial, the largest American lender, rewarded Bank of America’s (BofA) $4bn (£2.06bn, E2.7bn) bid move by marking its shares down 10% below the price BofA is offering.

Hips heap yet more misery on an already struggling housing market

6th February, 2008

Despite massive opposition, the government’s plan to make sellers pay from £300 ($590, e403) to £500 for Home Information Packs (Hips) is now law.

Bar-room brawl continues as S&N holds out for more

16th January, 2008

Beer drinkers don’t lack in bravado, especially after a pint or two; John Dunsmore, chief executive of Scottish & Newcastle (S&N), brewer of Foster’s and Kronenbourg, has shown plenty of Dutch courage in rejecting the increased 780p a share, £7.6bn, ($14.9bn, E10bn) takeover approach from Carlsberg, the Danish brewer, and its Dutch sidekick, Heineken.

Hands faces the music in attempt to reinvent EMI

16th January, 2008

FOR a company that calls itself Friends Provident, Britain’s fourth-largest insurer has made precious few chums in the City over the past year.

The greenback may be down but recovery is on the way

6th February, 2008

Traders in American dollars must feel like they are inside a real-time economics test tube experiment.

Friends faces lonely funds search

16th January, 2008

FOR a company that calls itself Friends Provident, Britain’s fourth-largest insurer has made precious few chums in the City over the past year.

Emerging markets break the rules as government bonds’ prices soar

6th February, 2008

One of the best-known rules for bond investors is to pull out of emerging markets when crises hit.

Using historical analogies in order to predict the markets doesn't work

30th January, 2008

PEOPLE who try to handicap the markets for a living practice the art of the plausible. Many trudge from conference room to lunch table to banquet hall lugging PowerPoint decks full of unobjectionable statistical touchstones for commission-wielding clients. At times of investor confusion and market dissonance, such as now, their art is often reduced to carving a slice out of economic history that ratifies their existing outlook.

Gulf airlines set to overtake European and US carriers

16th January, 2008

The centre of power in business and politics is shifting inexorably to the east; the Gulf, India, China and Singapore are increasingly calling the tune, from bail-outs of Wall Street banks to stakebuilding in Western financial institutions.

How to combine altruism with successful wealth management

30th January, 2008

BILL Gates, Warren Buffett and now Barron Hilton: some of the world’s wealthiest people are electing to give away large tranches of their fortunes.

Advisers face an M&A fee clampdown

16th January, 2008

In HIS book The Accidental Investment Banker, Jonathan Knee, a former Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley mergers and acquisitions (M&A) banker, puts it bluntly.

Santander hovers over A&L

9th January, 2008

Grupo Santander, the Spanish banking giant, has done well so far from investing in Britain. But it is right to baulk at paying too much for Alliance & Leicester (A&L), having paid 1.7 times book value for Abbey in 2004.

FTSE CNBC Global 300

30th January, 2008

The performance of the world’s largest companies over the past week

Job cuts mean Citi boss has no time to rest on his laurels

9th January, 2008

New chief executives have a honeymoon period in which to push through tricky decisions. For Vikram Pandit, newly installed at Citi, the wedding bells are already a distant memory. Reports of impending job cuts at the financial services behemoth – with full year results pending on 15 January – suggest that Pandit is moving quickly to make his mark.

Stock-specifics are key to survival, not woolly macro views about recession

30th January, 2008

SO NOW we have another piece of the jigsaw in place: the trigger for last week’s dramatic sell-off was the decision by Société Générale’s risk managers to close out the massive long position in European equities they suddenly found they had.

A marine fluid handling specialist with liquid assets

30th January, 2008

HAMWORTHY specialises in the design and manufacture of marine fluid handling systems, focusing on gas handling, pumping and water management. Its products cover all types of merchant and naval vessels as well as offshore applications, particularly oil and gas services. In these uncertain times the company’s scope of products, regional diversification and strong reputation make it a good candidate for a defensive but exciting investment.

Michael Page makes best of a bad job

9th January, 2008

The share price of Michael Page, the recruitment firm, may well come to be seen as a proxy for the credit crunch. The shares, trading near 600p in July 2007 when the credit crunch hit home, have been on a steady slide ever since, scraping the bottom at 250p this week.

Investors must ask if insurance is a necessary protection or big swindle

30th January, 2008

THE stunning losses at France’s Société Générale, prompted by rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel, underline a major risk faced by all investors: fraud.

Darling’s flawed plans to shake up financial regulation

9th January, 2008

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had better listen carefully to the consultation submissions on his proposed shake-up of Britain’s financial regulatory system because there are serious flaws in his plans as they stand.