Recent Event Highlights: Cracks in Iceland's stance on EU, Iceland lifts interest rates, Iceland lifts interest rates to record 18% to secure $2bn loan, Interest rates hoisted to 18% (but don't worry, it's Iceland), Iceland seeks to secure $4bn in loans, Iceland puts hope in neighbours, and 46 more...
Created by retailweek on 13/10/2008
Last updated: 11/03/10 at 21:42
Tags: baugur iceland
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Norwegian Air Shuttle is moving fast to fill the vacuum left by the collapse last week of Sterling Airlines, the Copenhagen-based, Iceland-owned low-cost carrier. This...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d0530e08-a947-11dd-a19a-000077b07658.html
The first serious cracks in Iceland's ruling Independence party on joining the European Union have appeared after its vice-chairman broke with party policy and said...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fc345660-a6ec-11dd-95be-000077b07658.html
A crack has appeared in the policy of Iceland's ruling Independence party towards European Union accession after its vice-chairman said the crisis-hit nation should...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d4ffb60e-a6ea-11dd-95be-000077b07658.html
The first serious cracks in Iceland's ruling Independence party on joining the European Union have appeared after its vice-chairman broke with party policy and said...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b9b9f80-a6ec-11dd-95be-000077b07658.html
Iceland has drafted in one of London's top litigation firms to explore claims against the UK Treasury stemming from the Nordic country's banking collapse, the...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d9832298-a621-11dd-9d26-000077b07658.html
The central bank raised interest rates Tuesday by a huge six percentage points, to 18 percent, a move aimed at satisfying the International Monetary Fund and restore trust in a shattered currency.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/28/business/iceland.php
Iceland raised interest rates to a record 18 per cent from 12 per cent yesterday as a condition of a proposed $2bn loan from the International Monetary Fund to help...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bda6883a-a559-11dd-b4f5-000077b07658.html
Iceland raised interest rates to a record 18 per cent from 12 per cent yesterday as a condition of a proposed $2bn loan from the International Monetary Fund to help...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/90b4d278-a559-11dd-b4f5-000077b07658.html
In a shock emergency move, interest rates were ramped up from 12% to 18%. But don't panic the surprise hike came in Iceland, probably the most devastated economy in Europe
http://rss.thisislondon.co.uk/c/365/f/11085/s/23e53cb/l/0L0Sthisislondon0O0Cstandard0Ebusiness0Carticle0E235789690Edetails0CInterest0Krates0Khoisted0Kto0K180J250K0K0J28but0Kdon0J27t0Kworry0J2C0Kit0J27s0KIceland0J290Carticle0Bdo/story01.htm
Geir Haarde, Iceland's prime minister, yesterday confirmed the country was hoping to secure $4bn in loans from its Nordic neighbours and others in addition to the $2bn...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0ff020bc-a490-11dd-8104-000077b07658.html
With its $2bn (£1.3bn, €1.6bn) rescue loan to Iceland and $16.5bn to Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund has started to dip into an arsenal that is full...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0faf68e2-a490-11dd-8104-000077b07658.html
Iceland is hoping to secure a multi-billion dollar package of loans from its Nordic neighbours at a special gathering of prime ministers from the region in Helsinki...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6571fdb8-a3c7-11dd-942c-000077b07658.html
Iceland has become the first western nation to request a bail-out from the International Monetary Fund since the UK in 1976 as it seeks to restore confidence in an...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6171b02c-a22e-11dd-a32f-000077b07658.html
Straumur Burdaras, the Iceland-based investment bank, has bought the rights to the name Teathers from the administrators of the former nominated adviser and will hire...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/333eb7b4-a22d-11dd-a32f-000077b07658.html
It's like Grand Designs meets Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, on a scale that would have suited the Beijing Olympics. There's that sharp, sulphurous whiff that always fills the air towards the end of construction projects, and a great deal of dust. Thousands of people - men, in the main - in hard-hats and fluorescent jackets are fixing fittings, putting down wiring, and hodding endless consignments of cardboard boxes. Above us, there's an undulating glass roof, apparently meant to capture the effect of a pebble being dropped into a pool, supported by white struts that are supposed to look like trees. One of our guides enthusiastically tells us the effect is meant to be "organic", though whether nature offers any examples of water being held up by woodland is an interesting question.Welcome to Westfield London: 1.5m square metres of shopping centre, built at a cost of £1.6bn, dropped on to Shepherd's Bush, and due to be opened by Boris Johnson next Thursday. The company from which it takes its name is a vast multinational outfit, co-founded by its current chairman, a 78-year-old Holocaust survivor and naturalised Australian called Frank Lowy, who is currently under investigation for alleged tax evasion in Australia (a claim he denies, and which, he says, "disturbs and upsets" him). Westfield is involved in shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand and the US, as well as eight in the UK; the ninth and 10th will be Westfield Bradford and Westfield Stratford City, built into the site of the London Olympics, and set to open in March 2011.Westfield London - a joint venture with the British property company Hammerson - will be Britain's largest shopping mecca after Bluewater in Kent and Gateshead's MetroCentre. Women are projected to make up 75% of its customers; it also relies on the fact that a sizable share of people within a five-mile radius are as "educated urbanites", and therefore exactly the kind of people high-street retailers want to attract. The essential according to its sumptuous promotional material, is that "indulgence is no longer the preserve of the very rich". It talks about something that is "aspirational, yet inclusive", and claims that the centre "takes the purity and indulgence of luxury and positions it as inclusive and accessible". What this means in practice is an awkward mixture of high-end opulence and high-street ordinariness. There is space for Topshop and Superdrug, but for £90 an hour, those who can afford it will be able to hire a personal shopping assistant-cum-stylist. There will be valet parking and home delivery. Then there is an area known as The Village, which will host such dizzying names as Mulberry, Tiffany & Co and Louis Vuitton, surely aimed at the well-heeled residents of nearby Notting Hill, Holland Park, Kensington and Chelsea. And so to the bad news. Westfield's kind of capitalism is not nimble and quick to react, but based on decade-long developments. Its west London centre arrives in the midst of nightmarish times for the retail trade, as illustrated by recent stories about some of the businesses that are about to move in. Waitrose's sales are slipping week by week. Debenhams' profits in the year to August 2008 fell by more than £20m. The last two financial quarters have seen Marks & Spencer's sales drop by 5.3% and 6.1%, and House Of Fraser is partly owned by the ruined Icelandic group Baugur. With Next, these four names form Westfield London's "anchor stores".Still, this is not the only place opening at such a precarious moment. Leicester's new Highcross Centre - "an awe-inspiring mix of fashionable stores, stylish restaurants and true city centre living" - began trading on September 4. In Bristol, there is Cabot Circus, a self-styled "retail destination" that opened on September 25. Liverpool ONE, a 42-acre development based on 160 shops, marked its first full day of trading on October 1. Similar retail leviathans are in the pipeline for Preston, Cardiff, Aberdeen, Bath and Ipswich, as well as Wrexham, Aylesbury and Newbury. If recent events are anything to go by, their stories will follow the same pattern: local hostility, and questions about the viability of massive shopping centres in such lean times, followed by openings hyped up as against-the-odd triumphs. For the past week, I have been talking to people from the retail trade and my brain is awash with the kind of jargon that can make politicians look like merchants of the plainest English. Everything is about "footfall", "retail mix", "psychographics" and "experiential marketing". When reminded of the prospect of recession and shrinking high-street spending, most of them stick to the same rather Darwinian script: the strongest will survive, and that means them.The day before my visit to Westfield London, Mary "Queen Of Shops" Portas calls. Her PR and consultancy business Yellowdoor is handling Westfield's launch, and she has been working with the centre's senior management on, "what I think behaviour patterns will be, just in terms of promotions, events and associations". But what, I wonder, of the state of the economy?"Is it an time to open?" she considers. "Probably not. But this thing's been in the planning for 10 years, and in the building for five, you know? None of us can predict what the future is, but I do believe that everyone's feeling so flat about what's happening with the credit crunch that there'll be places we'll go to for a lift, to feel upbeat. I think people will go there with their families, to go to the cinema, to have a bit to eat - and in decent restaurants. I'm not talking about Spudulike. They'll be doing fashion shows, exhibitions, retrospectives . . . you don't really get that elsewhere. And in times like these, I want a bit of joy. Don't you?"Westfield, she says, is all about "mixing supermarkets, with the high street, with luxury brands, all in one space". She claims that "this has never happened in the UK before" - apparently ignoring London's poor old West End. "If this means the crap parts of Oxford Street suffer, I don't give a monkey's, because they're rubbish," she says. "When I pass Topshop and I go towards Tottenham Court Road, I want to kill myself."Keith Mabbett is Westfield London's senior leasing executive, charged with filling its 260-odd spaces. He says 98% are done deals, and so his optimistic account of the centre's prospects continues. "What you see here," he says, "is something with which there isn't a comparison in the world." But what of the downturn? "You live through these cycles. I take the view that we're creating something with longevity that will ride these storms. But we're not immune from it, by any stretch of the imagination."Most of the centre's contracts were signed before the recent plunge in the markets, but three chains, he says, have pulled out of their agreements, along with one restaurant. "In the last six months, the credit crunch and the availability of capital has influenced deals," he goes on. "There's no doubt about that. How? More generosity in terms. We've extended rent-free periods to assist companies getting over gaps in finance. Prior to the crunch, we would have offered 12 or 13 months rent-free. Now, on the latter deals, we're nearer 18 months." The standard annual rent for an average-sized retail space at Westfield London is around £300,000, so he's talking about an enticement of around £450,000.From certain angles, you can peer beyond Westfield's walls, and out into neighbourhoods such as Shepherd's Bush, the high-rise flats near Latimer Road and Wood Lane. Here, residents are complaining about dust, noise, allegations of rats being accidentally let loose, and the fact that work has been going on through the night. In fairness to Westfield, its behaviour does not quite mark it down as a group of ruthless capitalists, though just about every one of its philanthropic gestures has a downside. After pressure from the community organisation London Citizens, it agreed to pay all its employees and contractors the London Living Wage of £7.45 an hour, though this will not apply to staff of the centre's shops. It has also put up £4m for the sprucing-up of Shepherd's Bush green, though the plans mean the closure of a much-loved local venue called Ginglik, in a converted public toilet. Most remarkably, Westfield has contributed £170m to redeveloping Shepherd's Bush's main tube station, opening a new Hammersmith and City line stop, putting in a new overground rail station, and radically changing local bus services. Again, there are drawbacks. According to some people, the fact that Westfield has put in so much money has had one inevitable upshot: as the local MP, Labour's Andy Slaughter, puts it, "Everything is now funnelled in and out of Westfield, without stopping in the locality." Given that the existing local convenience shops rely on passing trade, this may not be good news - and plenty of local traders are already reeling from the nine-month closure of the Central line station."This is a cuckoo in the nest," says Slaughter, whose ire is partly based on what he sees as Westfield's cosy relationship with Hammersmith and Fulham's Conservative council. "They're not pitching it at many local people. They're going for people coming in from Kensington and Westminster, or people driving in from Berkshire and Buckinghamshire along the M40. The implication is that you're going to get even more 4X4 sort of traffic, and fewer people coming on foot or by public transport. They're in severe danger of gridlock, from day one. And then you're on to another issue: can a relatively small local centre like Shepherd's Bush cope with this?"Cabot Circus in Bristol is a £600m "mixed-use masterplan", owned by the Bristol Alliance, a joint venture between the property group Land Securities and Hammerson. Provisionally called Merchants' Quarter until the name was dropped because of its slave-trade connotations, it contains 140 shops, around 25 restaurants and cafes, and a 14-screen cinema containing two "Director's Halls", which offer what amounts to club-class film-going: "ultra-wide" leather seats for £12. Millions have also been spent on specially commissioned artworks, and there are 266 new housing units, 24 of which are earmarked as "affordable".Part of what's here is a fantastically upmarket square called Quakers Friars, and a shopping street that sits at the retail market's top end. In the menswear department of Harvey Nichols, the downturn is apparently being held at bay. A Gucci jacket that amounts to a posh cagoule is going for £540. A John Smedley cardigan will cost you £155; best of all, there's an apparently bog-standard green hoodie, featuring the words "Billionaire Boys Club", on sale for a mere £160. Somewhat predictably, the management claims that despite endless bad news from the high street, all is well. Centre director Richard Belt and soon-to-depart project director Bob De Barr talk about what they see as Bristol's decline as a retail centre, and "bringing the city back up the hierarchy to where it belongs". Cabot Circus, they claim, is all about "the right kind of 21st-century retailing", and avenging the fact that Bristol has traditionally offered "a disappointing shopping experience". If some people look at the lineup of shops - H&M, Next, Dorothy Perkins, H Samuel - and see the stuff of clone towns, it doesn't much bother them. "You do get people saying, 'All the shops are the same,'" says De Barr, "but a lot of shops are the same in all cities, because people like them."The retail trade's darkening economic prospects are also briskly dealt with. "I'd be naive to say we're not being affected by what's going on," says Belt. "But because Bristol was so far down the retail rankings, and we've put it back up, we're pulling people from places where they haven't been coming to Bristol for years." As with Westfield London, they say that numbers of pullouts have been tiny: "one or two" chains have withdrawn, along with a single restaurant, though I get the sense that at least a few businesses decided not to get involved at all. De Barr and Belt do not like the term "shopping centre". Theirs is a "retail destination", a distinction based on the fact that Cabot Circus bleeds out into the city, and surrounding streets they are busy redeveloping. The fact that their turf includes open areas points up one of the more unsettling aspects of the development: what seem to be ordinary streets are actually privately owned."It's an interesting one, this," says Belt. "These places are quite a new breed. We've applied all the usual rules that shopping centres do, but because it's a streetscape, it's getting customers scratching their heads a bit." Cycling is forbidden. Unless you have a visual impairment, should you turn up with a dog, you'll be told to leave it at home next time. Security staff in regulation black blazers keep a constant watch on what's going on, including smoking. "Three quarters of Cabot Circus has got a roof," says Belt, "so it comes under the right legislation. But I had to make a decision about where the roof finishes and what I'd see as the kind of Bond Street end - and I made a decision the whole of the place would be no-smoking, which I can do because it's private property." The public, he says, "have taken a while to come round, but it's happening now. You see them putting their cigarettes out." Looking into Cabot Circus's shop windows, you quickly get a sense of hard times, and the standard retail rules they have overturned. The stores here opened a month ago, but there are already sales at Topshop and H&M. House of Fraser, meanwhile, has reductions of as much as 50%.This isn't the only indication of things not being quite right. The development nudges the inner-city areas of St Pauls and St Judes, but its publicity material talks about 3.6 million people living within an hour's drive of Bristol, 59% of whom are ABC1s. "Cabot Circus," it goes on, "is a direct response to this affluence" - which rather makes you wonder how it sits relative to the communities on its doorstep.Marianne Kempf is the chair of a local community organisation called St Pauls Unlimited - and once she has served notice that she is speaking in a personal capacity, out it all comes. "This is showing up a huge financial divide," she says. "When people step back from the excitement of it all, I think they'll feel slightly different. It's too gaudy. It's too corporate. It's too rich. And it's come at a very bad time. It's all very well boasting about spending £12.5m on art and all the rest of it, but that looks pretty poor when people can't afford their weekly food shopping. That's not being talked about, but I think it will be."What she says next cuts straight to the quick. "What are shops supposed to deliver? Goods. We had plenty of places doing that already. If you wanted a Woolies, there was one. If you wanted some pants, you could get some pants. It's lovely to have a choice, but it's what that choice is. And this isn't much of a choice because a lot of people can't afford it."After days spent listening to all that talk about footfall and experiential marketing, her words chime with the spirit of these anxious times that bit more convincingly - though as I wait for my train out of Bristol, I catch a conversation that suggests once the current storms have subsided, Westfield and Cabot Circus are bound to win out. A woman no older than 30 is sitting nearby, talking into her mobile. Maybe it's my age, but her words - spoken casually, as if they're the most normal thing in the world - have a slightly chilling quality about them. "What are you doing tonight?" she says excitedly. "Are you going to the mall?."Retail industryRecessionCredit crunchguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/24/retail-recession-westfield
pThe fund is back. It needs to keep alert/ppUNTIL last week, the IMF had been embarrassingly absent from the financial turmoil. Instead, it was just embarrassed. Rather than discussing rescue packages for troubled countries, most of the talk had been over the severance package offered to a former lover of its managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn./pp Now, as one country after another descends into crisis, the world#8217;s economic firefighter has at last been called into action#8212;despatching teams to parts as different as Iceland and Pakistan. As The Economist went to press the IMF was close to announcing details of a $1 billion package for Iceland, part of a $6 billion lifeline with contributions from the other Nordic countries and Japan. Pakistan may get $10 billion over two years. A $14 billion package for Ukraine is likely. Other countries talking to the fund include Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Romania and Serbia. .../pdiv
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pComputing is about to face a trade-off between sovereignty and efficiency/ppWORRYING about the next big thing in high-tech may seem otherworldly just now. The world is flirting with recession and IT is likely to suffer badly as a result (see article). Yet this will not stop a shift that promises to affect everyone (see our special report this week). Computing is fast becoming a #8220;cloud#8221;#8212;a collection of disembodied services accessible from anywhere and detached from the underlying hardware. The chances are that much of business and everyday computing will one day be mediated by this ethereal cloud./ppThis presents a paradox. On one hand, computing will be a borderless utility. Technically, it need not matter whether your data and programs are stored down the road or on the other side of the world; everything will look as if it is happening on the screen in front of you. On the other, geography still matters. The data centres that contain the cloud, each often the size of several football pitches, cannot be built just anywhere. They need cheap power, fibre-optic cables, a chilly climate and dry air (otherwise you have to remove heat and humidity, which do horrible things to electronics). Good sites are scarce. Iceland fits the bill. Google is even thinking of building floating data centres, cooled by seawater and powered by the waves. .../pdiv
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The new boss of Woolworths has reshuffled his management team and four senior executives are heading for the exit.The four departures are group finance director Stephen East, property director Colin Carter, corporate finance director David Roberts and James Collins, director of business development.A spokeswoman for the group said yesterday that East had made it clear some time ago that he wanted to leave the retailer and build a portfolio career and he would not receive a payoff. She said the moves were part of new chief executive Steve Johnson's aim to simplify the structure of the business.Robert McDonald, formerly of Punch Taverns, is joining the group as finance director and Simon Singleton has been hired as retail director. Singleton previously worked alongside Johnson at DIY group Focus and at Asda.The four departures are on top of two others last week, when Simon Turner, director of retail operations, and Claire Tiney, the group human resources director, left the company.Johnson took over at the beginning of September, replacing Trevor Bish-Jones, who was ousted after six years trying to reinvent the retailer. Two weeks into the job the new chief executive revealed that Woolworths had crashed £100m into the red in the first half of the year and described the group as an organisation where "process and hierarchy are more important than decisions and actions".He added: "The stores and customers are at the end of the line rather than the beginning of the thought process." He said the group was "unnecessarily complicated", had lost its value credentials and needed "to focus on the things that really matter". He promised he would "radically bear down on costs" and simplify the business. Johnson is expected to unveil his new strategy in the new year.The shares fell 6% to 4.13p, valuing the 800-store chain at £60m. Johnson will be paid £550,000 plus bonuses and will receive more than £8m over four years if he can drive the share price back over 20p. McDonald is to be paid £330,000 plus bonuses and will receive more than £4m by 2012 if the shares hit 20p.Woolworths is being squeezed by supermarkets and online retailers and is also battling the downturn on the high street as consumers rein back their spending.In the summer the retailer was approached by the Iceland supermarket boss Malcolm Walker with a view to a takeover. The chairman rebuffed the proposal, which was backed by the Icelandic retail investor Baugur. Walker dropped his plans as a result of the recent financial crisis.A Baugur-backed consortium also speaks for 10% of Woolworths' shares. This month Sir Alan Sugar attempted to buy 4% of the retailer through the Icelandic bank Kaupthing, but those shares were caught up in the Icelandic banking crisis and have not been delivered.WoolworthsRetail industryguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/23/woolworths-management-reshuffle
The new boss of Woolworths has reshuffled his management team and four senior executives are heading for the exit.The four departures are group finance director Stephen East, property director Colin Carter, corporate finance director David Roberts and James Collins, director of business development.A spokeswoman for the group said yesterday that East had made it clear some time ago that he wanted to leave the retailer and build a portfolio career and he would not receive a payoff. She said the moves were part of new chief executive Steve Johnson's aim to simplify the structure of the business.Robert McDonald, formerly of Punch Taverns, is joining the group as finance director and Simon Singleton has been hired as retail director. Singleton previously worked alongside Johnson at DIY group Focus and at Asda.The four departures are on top of two others last week, when Simon Turner, director of retail operations, and Claire Tiney, the group human resources director, left the company.Johnson took over at the beginning of September, replacing Trevor Bish-Jones, who was ousted after six years trying to reinvent the retailer. Two weeks into the job the new chief executive revealed that Woolworths had crashed £100m into the red in the first half of the year and described the group as an organisation where "process and hierarchy are more important than decisions and actions".He added: "The stores and customers are at the end of the line rather than the beginning of the thought process." He said the group was "unnecessarily complicated", had lost its value credentials and needed "to focus on the things that really matter". He promised he would "radically bear down on costs" and simplify the business. Johnson is expected to unveil his new strategy in the new year.The shares fell 6% to 4.13p, valuing the 800-store chain at £60m. Johnson will be paid £550,000 plus bonuses and will receive more than £8m over four years if he can drive the share price back over 20p. McDonald is to be paid £330,000 plus bonuses and will receive more than £4m by 2012 if the shares hit 20p.Woolworths is being squeezed by supermarkets and online retailers and is also battling the downturn on the high street as consumers rein back their spending.In the summer the retailer was approached by the Iceland supermarket boss Malcolm Walker with a view to a takeover. The chairman rebuffed the proposal, which was backed by the Icelandic retail investor Baugur. Walker dropped his plans as a result of the recent financial crisis.A Baugur-backed consortium also speaks for 10% of Woolworths' shares. This month Sir Alan Sugar attempted to buy 4% of the retailer through the Icelandic bank Kaupthing, but those shares were caught up in the Icelandic banking crisis and have not been delivered.WoolworthsRetail industryguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/23/woolworths-management-reshuffle
The new boss of the struggling Woolworths group has reshuffled his management team and four senior executives are heading for the exit.The four departures are group finance director Stephen East, property director Colin Carter, corporate finance director David Roberts and James Collins, director of business development.A spokeswoman for the group said East had made it clear some time ago that he wanted to leave the retailer and build a portfolio career and he will not receive a payoff. She said the moves were part of new chief executive Steve Johnson's aim to simplify the structure of the business.Robert McDonald, formerly of Punch Taverns, is joining the group as finance director and Simon Singleton has been hired as retail director. Singleton previously worked alongside Johnson at do-it-yourself group Focus and at Asda. Today's four departures are on top of two others last week, when Simon Turner, director of retail operations and Claire Tiney, the group human resources director, left the company.Johnson took over at the beginning of September, replacing Trevor Bish-Jones, who was ousted after six years trying to reinvent the retailer.Two weeks into the job the new chief executive revealed the retailer had crashed £100m into the red in the first half of the year and described Woolworths as an organisation where "process and hierarchy are more important than decisions and actions".Johnson added: "The stores and customers are at the end of the line rather than the beginning of the thought process." He said the group was "unnecessarily complicated", had lost its value credentials and "needs to focus on the things that really matter".He promised to "radically bear down on costs" and said he would simplify the business. Johnson is expected to unveil his new strategy in the new year.The shares were down 7% at 4p by mid-morning, valuing the 800-store chain at just £58m. Johnson is receiving a salary of £550,000 plus bonuses and will receive more than £8m over four years if he can force the share price back over 20p.McDonald is to be paid a basic salary of £330,000 plus bonuses and will receive more than £4m by 2012 if the shares hit 20p.Woolworths is being squeezed by the supermarkets and by online retailers and is now also battling the downturn on the high street as consumers rein back their spending.In the summer the retailer was approached by Iceland supermarket boss Malcolm Walker with a view to a takeover of the stores. The retailer's chairman rebuffed the proposal, which would have been backed by struggling Icelandic retail investor Baugur. Walker dropped his plans as a result of the recent financial crisis.A Baugur backed consortium also speaks for 10% of Woolworths' shares. Earlier this month Sir Alan Sugar attempted to buy 4% of the retailer through Icelandic bank Kaupthing, but those shares were caught up in the Icelandic banking crisis and have not been delivered.WoolworthsRetail industryHigh street retailersguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/22/woolworths-retail
The new boss of the struggling Woolworths group has reshuffled his management team and four senior executives are heading for the exit.The four departures are group finance director Stephen East, property director Colin Carter, corporate finance director David Roberts and James Collins, director of business development.A spokeswoman for the group said East had made it clear some time ago that he wanted to leave the retailer and build a portfolio career and he will not receive a payoff. She said the moves were part of new chief executive Steve Johnson's aim to simplify the structure of the business.Robert McDonald, formerly of Punch Taverns, is joining the group as finance director and Simon Singleton has been hired as retail director. Singleton previously worked alongside Johnson at do-it-yourself group Focus and at Asda. Today's four departures are on top of two others last week, when Simon Turner, director of retail operations and Claire Tiney, the group human resources director, left the company.Johnson took over at the beginning of September, replacing Trevor Bish-Jones, who was ousted after six years trying to reinvent the retailer.Two weeks into the job the new chief executive revealed the retailer had crashed £100m into the red in the first half of the year and described Woolworths as an organisation where "process and hierarchy are more important than decisions and actions".Johnson added: "The stores and customers are at the end of the line rather than the beginning of the thought process." He said the group was "unnecessarily complicated", had lost its value credentials and "needs to focus on the things that really matter".He promised to "radically bear down on costs" and said he would simplify the business. Johnson is expected to unveil his new strategy in the new year.The shares were down 7% at 4p by mid-morning, valuing the 800-store chain at just £58m. Johnson is receiving a salary of £550,000 plus bonuses and will receive more than £8m over four years if he can force the share price back over 20p.McDonald is to be paid a basic salary of £330,000 plus bonuses and will receive more than £4m by 2012 if the shares hit 20p.Woolworths is being squeezed by the supermarkets and by online retailers and is now also battling the downturn on the high street as consumers rein back their spending.In the summer the retailer was approached by Iceland supermarket boss Malcolm Walker with a view to a takeover of the stores. The retailer's chairman rebuffed the proposal, which would have been backed by struggling Icelandic retail investor Baugur. Walker dropped his plans as a result of the recent financial crisis.A Baugur backed consortium also speaks for 10% of Woolworths' shares. Earlier this month Sir Alan Sugar attempted to buy 4% of the retailer through Icelandic bank Kaupthing, but those shares were caught up in the Icelandic banking crisis and have not been delivered.WoolworthsRetail industryHigh street retailersguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/22/woolworths-retail
Sir Phillip Green, the retail magnate linked with an approach for Baugur's UK retail interests, has put his interest in the group on hold, according to media reports.
http://www.thegrocer.co.uk//Articles.aspx?page=articles=194359
Sir Philip Green is preparing for a shopping spree after forecasting that consolidation is almost inevitable in the retail sector over the coming year.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article4988566.ece#cid=OTC-RSS=1185799
Sir Philip Green, the Arcadia to BHS retail billionaire, said his attempt to buy into rival Baugur had stalled because the collapse of Iceland's economy was making it difficult to conclude a deal.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article4983776.ece#cid=OTC-RSS=1185799
Iceland is poised to announce a $6bn International Monetary Fund-led rescue package, backed with co-ordinated action from other central banks, to help stabilise its...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/602c3912-9f09-11dd-98bd-000077b07658.html
Iceland is poised to announce a $6bn International Monetary Fund-led rescue package, backed with co-ordinated action from other central banks, to help stabilise its...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b58de2de-9f09-11dd-98bd-000077b07658.html
Sir Alan Sugar has become an unlikely victim of Iceland's financial crisis after his investment in retailer Woolworths was thwarted when his shareholding failed to be...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6f39c35a-9cae-11dd-a42e-000077b07658.html
Malcolm Walker has now ruled out a Woolworths takeover, but the future of Iceland is even more intriguing. Peter Cripps and Adam Leyland report
http://www.thegrocer.co.uk//Articles.aspx?page=articles=194225
Bakkavouml;r has said its trading activities are not affected by the turmoil in Iceland, as it unveiled plans to close one site and downsize another.â©The company announced the proposed closure of its Mariner Foods site in Grimsby, which manufactures...
http://www.thegrocer.co.uk//Articles.aspx?page=articles=194288
Sir Alan Sugar has become an unlikely victim of Iceland's financial crisis after his investment in retailer Woolworths was thwarted when his shareholding failed to be delivered
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/12b9de18-9c80-11dd-a42e-000077b07658.html
The futures of Cruise, Jones Bootmaker, Mountain Warehouse and Duchamp are secure according to sources close to investment firm Kcaj after its links to Iceland and the collapse of its Hardy Amies business prompted speculation about the health of its other investments.
http://www.drapersonline.com:80/news/2008/10/fuiture_of_kcajbacked_chains_secure.html
The futures of Cruise, Jones Bootmaker, Mountain Warehouse and Duchamp are secure according to sources close to investment firm Kcaj after its links to Iceland and the collapse of its Hardy Amies business prompted speculation about the health of its other investments.
http://www.drapersonline.com:80/news/2008/10/fuiture_of_kcajbacked_chains_secure.html
Retail chain insists no shortage of funds while other stores in Icelandic company's empire feel financial pinch
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/17/retail
pThe ugly side of international banking/ppIT IS an odd sort of togetherness. European leaders gathered in Paris on October 12th and proclaimed a set of common principles for handling the financial crisis that underscored the impotence of supranational bodies. If the worst really is over, it is because national governments in Europe and beyond have reached deep into their own pockets, extending guarantees and injecting capital into domestic banks. /ppThat reality has brutally exposed the weaknesses in cross-border banking. One concern is about the safety of retail deposits held at branches of foreign banks. Banks that operate abroad under the European #8220;passport#8221; scheme, whereby deposit-guarantee schemes in the bank#8217;s home country are the first port of call for foreign depositors, may well seem less attractive to savers in light of recent events. The collapse of the banking system in Iceland#8212;a country that was recently listed as a spoof auction item on eBay#8212;led the British government to make novel use of anti-terror laws to freeze Icelandic assets. It and the Dutch government have ended up lending money to Iceland so that their citizens can retrieve money from Landsbanki, one of the country#8217;s nationalised banks. .../pdiv
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The turmoil in Iceland's banking system continued to cause chaos with Syndicate Asset Management slumping to a record low. The specialist fund manager lost 34...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c9d0e672-9b19-11dd-a653-000077b07658.html
The complexity of Iceland’s financial meltdown and its banks’ connections with Baugur are delaying a sale of the investment company’s debt.
http://www.retail-week.com:80/financial/2008/10/icelandic_turmoil_puts_brakes_on_debt_deal.html
Iceland rushed to stave off economic ruin today by slashing interest rates by 3.5% and pursuing talks with Russia over the possibility of a multibillion euro loan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/15/iceland-economy-retail
Private equity firm Alchemy is thought to be in the running to buy Baugur-backed Mosaic.
http://www.retail-week.com:80/Fashion/2008/10/alchemy_in_talks_with_mosaic.html
Retail tycoon Sir Philip Green faces competition from leading private equity groups for control of embattled Icelandic investor Baugur’s UK retail operations.
http://www.retail-week.com:80/Fashion/2008/10/private_equity_firms_vie_with_sir_philip_green_for_control_of_baugur.html
Sir Philip Green is facing competition from TPG, the US private equity group, in his attempt to gain control of Baugur's UK high street assets by buying the debt of...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5e0c23f6-9a52-11dd-bfe2-000077b07658.html
Sir Philip Green is facing competition from TPG, the US private equity group, in his attempt to gain control of Baugur's UK high street assets by buying the debt of the Icelandic company
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/01dbc5a4-9a2b-11dd-bfe2-000077b07658.html
Sir Philip Green is facing competition from TPG, the US private equity group, in his attempt to gain control of Baugur's UK high street assets by buying the debt of the Icelandic company
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/01dbc5a4-9a2b-11dd-bfe2-000077b07658.html
Sir Philip Green, owner of BHS and Topshop, is in talks about buying Icelandic group Baugur's network of shops, which includes House of Fraser, Hamley's and Karen Millen
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/67ee1a48-9a05-11dd-960e-000077b07658.html
Sir Philip Green, owner of BHS and Topshop, is in talks about buying Icelandic group Baugur's network of shops, which includes House of Fraser, Hamley's and Karen Millen
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/67ee1a48-9a05-11dd-960e-000077b07658.html
Private equity firms including Permira TPG and Alchemy are reported to be in talks with the Icelandic government to buy stakes in a string of UK retailers and debt connected to troubled investment group Baugur.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/3197208/Permira-TPG-and-Alchemy-said-to-be-in-talks-over-Baugur-firms.html
Baugur has denied newspaper reports that it has appointed BDO Stoy Hayward to advise on a restructuring and possible administration.
http://www.retail-week.com:80/Fashion/2008/10/baugur_denies_it_has_appointed_advisors.html;jsessionid=39D51A9A81749AB9B7F0BD6972BCF651
Baugur has denied newspaper reports that it has appointed BDO Stoy Hayward to advise on a restructuring and possible administration.
http://www.retail-week.com:80/Fashion/2008/10/baugur_denies_it_has_appointed_advisors.html;jsessionid=C370EE1C3669C50C71B13A1BB12574B2
Topshop tycoon Sir Philip Green today shrugged off talk of rival bidders threatening his plan to take control of the Icelandic-owned Baugur retail chain.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailymail/newsheadlines/~3/420313774/Rival-bidders-threaten-Sir-Philip-Greens-plan-control-Icelandic-owned-Baugur-retail-chain.html
Billionaire retail tycoon Sir Philip Green has seized on the financial turmoil to mount an audacious coup that could give him control of the High Street.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dailymail/newsheadlines/~3/418953551/Topshop-tycoon-Sir-Philip-Green-poised-pick-Iceland-bargains.html
Venture capital firms and banks weigh prospects for deal as entrepreneur faces scepticism in Iceland, where media ask why debt should not be retained by state-controlled banks
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2c1fe4c8-997a-11dd-9d48-000077b07658.html
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