Global accounting firm, KPMG has been appointed to advise the company on a range of restructuring options, which could include administration or a company voluntary agreement (CVA) to shed some of its 158 stores in the United Kingdom.

News of the appointment of KPMG was first reported by Sky News and comes as a wave of high street retailers battle against possible insolvency as poor retail sales threaten their ability to pay basics such as rent bills

Read More:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073938/Lingerie-retailers-La-Senza-festive-High-Street-casualty.html

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/88e9d7d4-25d8-11e1-856e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1gVqbtx6v

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/3996848/Lingerie-chain-La-Senza-may-go-bust.html

1. 350 million hours will be spent shopping online by the UK Internet population this December. This translates to an average of 8 hours and 45 minutes spent per person on shopping websites over the course of the month.
2. Cyber Monday (5 December) will be the UK’s biggest pre-Christmas shopping day online with 85 million visits to retail websites from UK Internet users, an 18 per cent increase on last year.
3. 2.1 billion visits will go to online retail sites in December, with record peaks in traffic both pre and post-Christmas.
4. Lego will be the most searched for toy this Christmas, in particular Lego Star Wars games and sets.
5. Hull will be the online shopping capital of Britain of December 2011, with proportionally more people doing their Christmas shopping online than any other city in the UK.
6. Monday 19 December will be the biggest day of December for online Grocery visits as people do some last minute food shopping but also check store opening times across the Christmas period.
7. Facebook will see a new peak in UK Internet visits as friends share messages of good will with one another. 25 million hours will be spent on Facebook on Christmas Day alone.
8. iPhones will be a third more popular online than iPads this Christmas. If search intent was reflected in sales, for every three iPads Apple sold this Christmas they would sell four iPhones.
9. Searches for the post-Christmas sales will start earlier than ever this year, with eager shoppers starting to do their research online as early as Christmas Eve.
10. Friday 23 December will be the biggest day of December for retailers receiving traffic from email as the multi-channel retailers prepare their customers for the post-Christmas sales.
11. The fashion sector will be the most reliant on Facebook traffic this Christmas, with TopShop, River Island and ASOS among the biggest recipients of Facebook traffic.
12. 12 million hours will be spent watching video clips on BBC iPlayer this Christmas with the biggest driver of traffic being the Dr Who Christmas special.

“Christmas 2011 looks set to be another record-breaker for many of the online sectors and particularly for retail,” commented James Murray, Marketing Research Analyst at Experian Hitwise.

“Cyber Monday is going to be crucial in the online retail sector and we are predicting 85 million visits on the 5th December, 15 per cent up on last year’s figures. Boxing Day could be another big day for retailers as more people go online to check out which stores have the best deals on offer. This year we will are expecting to see a massive multi-channel marketing push as brands look to win online to drive web purchases and in-store footfall.”

However it is still safe to say that McDonalds is much larger in terms of revenue with turnover per store being much larger at McDonalds.

Subway has had a major push into international markets in recent years focused on the franchise model opening small, low-cost outlets.

Subway was established 46 years ago in 1965 in the USA and there are now Subway restaurants in a total of 95 countries around the globe.

According to a leaked NATO document seen by a UK newspaper, a move to withdraw US tactical nuclear weapons from European territory has been omitted from the alliance’s draft strategic plan.

Additionally in Washington, a Republican leader in the Senate signalled that the nuclear arms control treaty Obama signed in April with Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, is unlikely be ratified this year. Most observers say that if the treaty (known as New Start) is delayed until next year, it will be as good as dead, as the Democratic majority in the Senate will be even thinner by then, following the party’s losses in the midterm elections.

Together the setbacks mark a new low point for Obama’s ambitions, set out in a landmark 2009 speech in Prague, to set the world on a path to abolition of nuclear weapons.

“We’re going to do what is in Britain’s national interest,” George Osborne – the UK Finance Chancellor said, as he joined other European finance ministers for a crunch European meeting in Brussels, Belgium.

“Ireland is our closest neighbour and it’s in Britain’s national interest that the Irish economy is successful and we have a stable banking system. So Britain stands ready to support Ireland in the steps that it needs to take to bring about that stability.”

Discussions with the EU and IMF will begin tomorrow, Irish finance minister Brian Lenihan said in an interview with Irish state run broadcaster,, RTE this morning. “We’re part of a common currency, we’re not on our own”…………. “In relation to the position of the United Kingdom, that’s a matter for the United Kingdom, in general the UK has not participated in European Union-wide assistance, but I know that the British authorities are anxious to ensure any help that Ireland needs will be given.”

The cost of Irish dept remains volatile with default insurance jumping in price again this morning.

GM product chief, Tom Stephens, was Speaking at an event where the Volt was named Motor Trend magazine’s 2011 Car of the Year and said: “If you look at where we were originally, in terms of what we thought the volume would be, we have stepped it up.”

He declined to give production volume forecasts however.

More info on this story is available at:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AF4V720101116
or
http://www.automotiveworld.com/news/oems-and-markets/84707-us-gm-boosts-volt-production-plans

The poll puts the Government at just 18% of the electorate’s support (22% when undecideds are excluded) which is in line with the trend since the Irish property bubble exploded in late 2008.

However when deciding between the alternatives to the current administration, the Irish electorate seems to be rejecting the policy of reform of public spending put forward by the Fine Gael group and choosing the higher spending policy of the Labour Party group. This route can only be funded by higher taxes and such a desire by the electorate would make Ireland unique.

However there is a huge contradiction in the poll. While the electorate want a government with a spend&tax leaning, when asked specifically on economic policy a majority would prefer cuts to public spending than increases in taxes.

From a political science point of view it will be every interesting to observe how this contradiction plays out.

The main coverage however is of the relative popularity of the potential new Prime Ministers (Taoiseachs) and how the Labour Group leader, Eamon Gilmore is almost twice as popular as the Fine Gael Group Leader, Enda Kenny and more than 3 times more popular than the current prime minister Brian Cowen.

The full opinion poll can be downloaded here:

Part 1: http://content.tv3.ie/downloads/tv3_national_opinion_poll_23rd_feb2010_part_1.pdf
Part 2: http://content.tv3.ie/downloads/tv3_national_opinion_poll_23rd_feb2010_part_2x.pdf

The cash will help fund the world’s largest oil exploration plan, which at $224 billion for the 2010-2014 period aims to turn Brazil into a major energy exporter.

More coverage of this story is available from Reuters and the New York Times

read more at the financial times: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6f89fe62-bb45-11df-b3f4-00144feab49a.html

Instead the Irish company has announced that it is to sponsor both rival Glasgow Soccer clubs, Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers.

Glasgow Celtic has a long relationship with Ireland and is, in fact, owned by Irish Billionaire Dermot Desmond, however it is the first time in the history of rival club Glasgow Rangers that it is to be sponsored by an Irish Company.

The company had already announced the three-year shirt sponsorship agreement with Celtic and Rangers, however it only yesterday announced the end of the SFA deal

Yahoo’s Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz said:

We had a good quarter, delivering income from operations higher than our outlook. Thanks to our efforts, our search share has stabilized, and we grew display advertising by 20% year over year. More importantly, guaranteed display grew by 24% as advertisers took advantage of the science, art and scale that only Yahoo! can offer.

When questioned Tuesday on the issue, Mr Ahern gave an emphatic no when asked if he would be running.

Many commentators believe that Mr Ahern, once considered a hero in his Dublin city constituency, would be embarrassed in any election considering his brother, Maurice, achieved his political party’s worst ever result in an election for the national parliament last June.

Once tipped as a possible European commission president during Ireland’s economic bubble, Mr Ahern,  is keeping his options open on running for President of Ireland next year; He refused to rule out running when asked on the subject.

The company, based in China, says it will maintain Volvo’s manufacturing presence in Sweden and Belgium, but will consider factories in China and other locations to serve local markets.

Volvo currently employs around 22,000 people worldwide, including 16,000 in Sweden.