FMC also handles the catering at other sporting events such as the Volvo PGA golf tournament at Wentworth in Surrey and the Six Nations rugby tournament at Twickenham.”I’m a tennis philistine,” confessed Mr McCartney before Wimbledon this year “I’m a rugby union fan.”. Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the billionaire Saudi investor, has emerged as a possible last-minute saviour of Le Meridien, the debt-laden hotels group. The problems of the company represented the first major failure for Mr Hands, who went on to set up Terra Firma Partners, which manages the investments made by him on Nomura’s behalf.The possibility of support from the billionaire Saudi prince came as Le Meridien issued a statement saying it had agreed an “interim solution” with stakeholders, extending the standstill agreement on its £740m debts.The hotels group has also paid a reduced rental payment of £4m to its landlord, Royal Bank of Scotland. This has bought time for the major lenders, which are Lehman Brothers and a 14-strong banking syndicate.
They can now extend the deadline for concluding the restructuring until 16 July. An unspecified new facility for working capital has also been agreed to tied the company over.”Ongoing positive discussions with key stakeholders encourage the board to believe that the future of the group should be secured in the face of difficult circumstances,” the company said. “The underlying operating performance of Le Meridien has been as a good as, if not better than, many competitors.”If Prince al-Waleed does invest in Le Meridien, it would add to a string of high-profile stakes he has taken in major companies. His biggest success came in 1991 when he started buying shares in Citicorp, the US bank that had been laid low by huge losses on New York property and third world debt. Amid fears it might go under the prince bought a 9.9 per cent stake at a knock-down price.
The bank soon recovered and, under the Citigroup name, became a global powerhouse once more.His Riyadh-based Kingdom Holdings has also acquired stakes in many of America’s best-known businesses, including Coca-Cola, Gillette, Walt Disney and McDonald’s.. Business groups have called on the Bank of England to cut interest rates this week to help stem a slide in business confidence on the back of slow domestic demand. “Low investment levels and slowing consumer spending were already having a serious impact before the conflict started. As a result, businesses are in no mood for spending,” he warned.Though interest rates are already at a 48-year low of 3.75 per cent, the Engineering Employers’ Federation added its voice to calls for a cut.The EEF’s director general, Martin Temple, said: “With the world economy struggling to respond to treatment, especially the dire state of the eurozone, the Bank must provide a shot in the arm as insurance.”So long as the current anaemic conditions persist elsewhere it is difficult to see how the UK economy alone can continue to sustain itself without a further boost.”BDO’s findings were echoed in a call for the Bank to cut rates by Digby Jones, the head of the CBI. Mr Jones said: “Firms have been waiting for the -recovery for a long time, but the economy just seems to be bumping along the bottom. There is little sign of growth gathering momentum.”While that is the situation and while there is little suggestion of price or wage inflation, business is going to grow increasingly impatient for a rate cut.
