1.
Canary Wharf
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Canary Wharf is a major business district located in Tower Hamlets, East London. Canary Wharf contains around 16,000,000 square feet of office and retail space, Morgan, KPMG, MetLife, Moodys, Morgan Stanley, RBC, S&P Global, Skadden, State Street, and Thomson Reuters. Canary Wharf is located on the West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs, from 1802 to 1939, the area was one of the busiest docks in the world. After the 1960s, the industry began to decline, leading to all the docks being closed by 1980. Canary Wharf itself takes its name from No.32 berth of the West Wood Quay of the Import Dock and this was built in 1936 for Fruit Lines Ltd, a subsidiary of Fred Olsen Lines for the Mediterranean and Canary Islands fruit trade. The Canary islands were so named after the dogs found there by the Spanish and as it is located on the Isle of Dogs. The Canary Wharf of today began when Michael von Clemm, former chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston, further discussions with G Ware Travelstead led to proposals for a new business district. The first buildings were completed in 1991, including One Canada Square, which became the UKs tallest building at the time, by the time it opened, the London commercial property market had collapsed, and Olympia and York Canary Wharf Limited filed for bankruptcy in May 1992. Initially, the City of London saw Canary Wharf as an existential threat and it modified its planning laws to expand the provision of new offices in the City of London, for example, creating offices above railway stations and roads. The resulting oversupply of office space contributed to the failure of the No 1 Canada Square project, in 1997, some residents living on the Isle of Dogs launched a lawsuit against Canary Wharf Ltd for private nuisance because the tower interfered with television signals. In December 1995 an international consortium, backed by the owners of Olympia & York and other investors. The new company was called Canary Wharf Limited, and later became Canary Wharf Group, recovery in the property market generally, coupled with continuing demand for large floorplate Grade A office space, slowly improved the level of interest. A critical event in the recovery was the start of work on the Jubilee Line Extension. At the peak of property prices in 2007, the HSBC building sold for a record £1.1 billion, in March 2014 planning permission was granted for the second residential building on the Canary Wharf estate, a 58-storey tower including 566 apartments plus shops and a health club. In July 2014 Canary Wharf Group was granted planning permission for a major expansion of the Canary Wharf estate. The plans include the construction of 30 buildings comprising a total of 4.9 million square feet, construction is planned to commence in autumn 2014 with the first buildings to be occupied at the end of 2018. In 2014, Singapore listed Oxley Holdings, together with developer Ballymore UK, have a joint venture to set up a new waterfront township of Royal Wharf with 3385 new homes housing over 10,000 people. This table lists completed buildings in Canary Wharf that are over 60 metres tall, the Canary Wharf developers played a pro-active role in improving transport links, which they recognised as essential to the success of the project
2.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
3.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
4.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
5.
London Docklands
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For the specific dock known under that name, see London Docks. For the basketball team known as London Docklands, see London Towers. London Docklands is the name for an area in east and southeast London and it forms part of the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port of London, at one time the worlds largest port and they have now been redeveloped principally for commercial and residential use. The name London Docklands was used for the first time in a government report on redevelopment plans in 1971 but has become virtually universally adopted. It also created conflict between the new and old communities of the London Docklands, in Roman and medieval times, ships tended to dock at small quays in the present-day city of London or Southwark, an area known as the Pool of London. However, this gave no protection against the elements, was vulnerable to thieves, the Howland Great Dock in Rotherhithe was designed to address these problems, providing a large, secure and sheltered anchorage with room for 120 large vessels. It was a commercial success and provided for two phases of expansion during the Georgian and Victorian eras. The first of the Georgian docks was the West India, followed by the London, the East India, the Surrey, the Regents Canal Dock, St Katharine, the Victorian docks were mostly further east, comprising the Royal Victoria, Millwall and Royal Albert. The King George V Dock was an addition in 1921. Three principal kinds of docks existed, wet docks were where ships were laid up at anchor and loaded or unloaded. Dry docks, which were far smaller, took individual ships for repairing, ships were built at dockyards along the riverside. In addition, the river was lined with warehouses, piers, jetties. The various docks tended to specialise in different forms of produce, the Surrey Docks concentrated on timber, for instance, Millwall took grain, St Katharine took wool, sugar and rubber, and so on. The docks required an army of workers, chiefly lightermen and quayside workers, some of the workers were highly skilled - the lightermen had their own livery company or guild, while the deal porters were famous for their acrobatic skills. Most were unskilled and worked as casual labourers and they assembled at certain points, such as pubs, each morning, where they were selected more or less at random by foremen. For these workers, it was effectively a lottery as to whether they would get work - and pay and this arrangement continued until as late as 1965, although it was somewhat regularised after the creation of the National Dock Labour Scheme in 1947. The main dockland areas were originally low-lying marshes, mostly unsuitable for agriculture, with the establishment of the docks, the dock workers formed a number of tight-knit local communities with their own distinctive cultures and slang
6.
Kohn Pedersen Fox
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Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates is an American architecture firm which provides architecture, interior, programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors. KPF is one of the largest architecture firms in the world and is one of the largest in New York City. KPF’s projects over the last 10 years include Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, Unilever House in London, the Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas, the Stephen M. In New York, KPF is presently designing the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project, KPF recently completed One Jackson Square and served as Executive Architect for the 10-year phased expansion and renovation of New Yorks Museum of Modern Art. Current projects around the world include the Midfield Terminal Complex at the Abu Dhabi International Airport, kPFs philosophy is firmly rooted in the belief that success is the result of collaboration and dialogue. KPF explains, “A similar sentiment is central to the manner in which we weave our buildings into the environmental fabric, for a firm of its size, KPF takes on an unusually large number of restoration and renovation projects. Examples of this work include The World Bank Headquarters, Unilever House, KPF has been recognized for workplace collaboration. Shortly after its founding in 1976, the American Broadcasting Company chose KPF to redevelop a former building on Manhattan’s West Side to house TV studios. This experience led to 14 more projects for ABC over the next 11 years, as well as commissions from major corporations across the country, including the AT&T, by the mid-1980s, KPF had nearly 250 architects working on projects in cities throughout the United States. It remains a Chicago landmark, and was voted “Favorite Building” by the readers of the Chicago Tribune in both 1995 and 1997. In 1986, KPF’s Procter & Gamble Headquarters in Cincinnati, which included an open plan interior design by Patricia Conway, was recognized for its design with the AIA National Honor Award. In the 1990s, KPF also took on a number of government and civic projects. Courthouse in New York, the Mark O. Hatfield U. S, courthouse in Portland, OR, the U. S. Courthouse of Minneapolis, the Buffalo Niagara International Airport and the multiple award-winning redevelopment of The World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D. C. KPF’s winning entry in the competition for the World Bank Headquarters. KPF’s sensitive design solution for the World Bank, its first D. C. project, KPF completed the design for two blocks of the large-scale Canary Wharf redevelopment and the Goldman Sachs Headquarters on Fleet Street. KPF has been selected for projects in the Canary Wharf area through the present day, KPF’s subsequent work in the U. K. includes Thames Court in London, the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University and the master plan for the London School of Economics. KPFs introduction to the Asian market began with the 4,500, within 10 years, KPF had projects in Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China
7.
Clifford Chance
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Clifford Chance LLP is a multinational law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and a member of the Magic Circle of leading British law firms. It is one of the ten largest law firms in the world measured both by number of lawyers and revenue. In 2013/14 Clifford Chance had total revenues of £1.36 billion, the highest of any firm in the Magic Circle in that year, according to SWFI, Clifford Chance tied for 1st place for calendar year 2015 regarding legal advising for public institutional investor deals. Clifford Chance was formed in 1987 by the merger of two London-based law firms, Clifford Turner and Coward Chance, in 1999 it merged with the Frankfurt-based firm Pünder, Volhard, Weber & Axster and the New York-based firm Rogers & Wells. Clifford Chance was formed by the merger of two London-based law firms, the first was Coward Chance, which derived from a firm established in 1802 by Anthony Brown, a fishmongers son. Browns firm became embroiled in the Panic of 1825, caused by speculation in South American investments, including the non-existent country of Poyais, one of the firms longest clients was Cecil Rhodes. The firm advised him on his mining business in South Africa, administered his estate after his death. It also helped Midland Bank recover assets in Russia after the 1917 revolution, the second firm was Clifford Turner, founded in 1900, with offices on Gresham Street, EC2. Its clients included Dunlop Rubber Company and Imperial Airways, in 1929, Clifford Turner advised and witnessed the creation of John Lewis Partnership. After the Second World War it advised the Labour government on the nationalisation of several privately owned industries and it opened offices in Paris in 1961, Amsterdam in 1972 and New York in 1986. The merger of Clifford Turner and Coward Chance in 1987 led to the formation of Clifford Chance, neither Clifford Turner nor Coward Chance were first-rank London law firms, but their merger has since been said to have changed the shape and profile of law firms in London and globally. Over the next decade the firm expanded its practices across Europe and Asia, in 1992 Clifford Chance became the first major non-US firm to practice US law. In 1999 Clifford Chance merged with Frankfurt-based law firm Pünder, Volhard, Weber & Axster, with Californias downturn, the firm closed its Pacific Coast operations in 2007. Clifford Chance was one of international law firms that developed local law practices in Japan following the easing of restrictions on foreign law firms in 2005. Clifford Chance was the highest-ranked European law firm by Japanese corporate legal departments in a December 2013 Nihon Keizai Shimbun survey. Like other firms in the Magic Circle, the firm lost significant revenue during the late-2000s recession, as part of cost cutting in response to the recession, in 2009 Clifford Chance announced plans to lay off 80 lawyers and 115 support staff in London. In addition, the firm accepted the applications of 50 fee earners in London over. In 2011 the firm moved back office tasks to its 350-employee Global Shared Service Centre, including a 60-employee Knowledge Centre in New Delhi, India as an efficiency measure
8.
FTSE Group
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FTSE Group, formerly FTSE Group, is a British provider of stock market indices and associated data services, wholly owned by the London Stock Exchange and operating out of premises in Canary Wharf. It operates the well known UK FTSE100 Index and the Russell 2000 as well as a number of other indices, FTSE stands for Financial Times Stock Exchange. The FTSE Group was created in 1995 by Pearson and the London Stock Exchange Group, FTSE Japan, based in Tokyo, was launched in 2003. In 2010, the joint venture with Xinhua Finance was terminated, the series was renamed into FTSE China Index Series. In 2011, Pearson sold its stake to LSE, FTSE Group operates 250,000 indices calculated across 80 countries and in 2015 was the number three provider of indices worldwide by revenue. FTSE Group earns around 60 per cent of revenue from subscription fees and 40 per cent from licensing for index-based products. Clients include both active and passive fund managers, consultants, asset owners, sell-side firms and financial data vendors, fTSE’s products are used by market participants worldwide for investment analysis, performance measurement, asset allocation and hedging. FTSE also provides many exchanges around the world with their domestic indices, FTSE Group operates the well known FTSE100 Index and FTSE250 Index as well as over 200,000 other indices, including 600 real-time indices. There are seven main groups of indices, Global Equity, Regional and Partner, Fixed Income, Real Estate, Alternative Investment, Responsible Investment, fees from the use of index information and associated services generate revenues necessary to continue operations. FTSE has offices in London, New York City, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan, San Francisco, Beijing, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Toronto. FTSE350 Index FTSE All-Share Index FTSE SmallCap Index FTSE4Good Index FTSE AIM UK50 Index FTSE AIM100 Index FTSE AIM All-Share Index FTSE MIB FTSE MTIRS – interest rate swap index Official site
9.
Total S.A.
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Total S. A. is a French multinational integrated oil and gas company and one of the seven Supermajor oil companies in the world. Total is also a large scale chemicals manufacturer, Total is a major player in solar energy with SunPower and Total Solar. Total has its office in the Tour Total in La Défense district in Courbevoie. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index, at Poincarés behest, Col. Ernest Mercier with the support of ninety banks and companies founded Total on 28 March 1924, as the Compagnie française des pétroles, literally the French Petroleum Company. Petroleum was seen as vital in the case of a new war with Germany, the French governments stake in TPC was transferred to CFP, and the Red Line agreement in 1928 rearranged the shareholding of CPF in TPC to 23. 75%. The company from the start was regarded as a private company in view of its listing on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1929. The company during the 1930s was engaged in exploration and production and its first refinery began operating in Normandy in 1933. After World War II, CFP engaged in oil exploration in Venezuela, Canada, Exploration in Algeria, then a French colony, began in 1946, with Algeria becoming a leading source of oil in the 1950s. In 1954, CFP introduced its downstream product – Total brand of gasoline in the African continent and Europe. In 1980, Total Petroleum Ltd. a company controlled 50% by CFP and this purchase gave Total refining capacity, transportation, and a network of 350 service stations in 20 states. The company renamed itself Total CFP in 1985, to build on the popularity of its gasoline brand, later in 1991, the name was changed to Total, when it became a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, Total continued to expand its presence in North America under several brand names. In 1989, Denver, Colorado, based Total Petroleum, Total CFPs North American unit, purchased 125 Road Runner retail locations from Texarkana, by 1993, Total Petroleum was operating 2,600 retail stores under the Vickers, Apco, Road Runner, and Total brands. That year, the company began remodeling and rebranding all of its North American gasoline, only four years later, Total sold its North American refining and retail operations to Ultramar Diamond Shamrock for $400 million in stock and $414 million in assumed debt. After Totals takeover of Petrofina of Belgium in 1999, it known as Total Fina. Afterwards it also acquired Elf Aquitaine, first named TotalFinaElf after the merger in 2000, it was later renamed back to Total on 6 May 2003. During that rebranding, the current globe logo was unveiled, in 2003, Total signed for a 30% stake in the gas exploration venture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – South Rub al-Khali joint venture along with Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco. The stake was bought out by its partners
10.
Infosys
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Infosys Limited is an Indian multinational corporation that provides business consulting, information technology and outsourcing services. It has its headquarters in Bengaluru, India, Infosys is the second-largest Indian IT services company by 2016 revenues, and the largest employer of H-1B visa professionals in the United States. On January 12,2017, its market capitalisation was $34.38 Billion. Co-founded in 1981 by 7 Engineers N. R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, N. S. Raghavan, S. Gopalakrishnan, S. D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh and Ashok Arora after they resigned from Patni Computer Systems. The company was incorporated as Infosys Consultants Pvt Ltd. with a capital of ₹10,000 or US$250 in Model Colony and it signed its first client, Data Basics Corporation, in New York City. In 1983, the corporate headquarters was relocated from Pune to Bengaluru. Name Change, The Company changed its name to Infosys Technologies Private Limited in April 1992 and it was later renamed to Infosys Limited in June 2011. An initial public offer in February 1993 with a price of ₹95 per share against book value of ₹20 per share. The Infosys IPO was under subscribed but it was bailed out by US investment bank Morgan Stanley which picked up 13% of equity at the offer price and its shares were listed in stock exchanges in June 1993 with trading opening at ₹145 per share. In October 1994, it made a private placement of 5,50,000 shares at ₹450 each against book value of ₹10 per share to Foreign Institutional Investors, Financial Institutions and Corporates. In March 1999, it issued 2,070,000 ADSs at US$34 per ADS under the American Depositary Shares Program, the total issue amount was US$70.38 million. The share price surged to ₹8,100 by 1999 making it the costliest share on the market at the time, at that time, Infosys was among the 20 biggest companies by market capitalization on the NASDAQ. During July 2003, June 2005 and November 2006, it made secondary ADS issues of US$294 million, US$1.07 billion, in December 2002, Infosys transferred the listing of its American Depositary Shares from the NASDAQ to the NYSE. In July 2014, Infosys started a subsidiary called, EdgeVerve Systems. Focusing on enterprise software products for operations, customer service, procurement. In August 2015, the Finacle Global Banking Solutions assets were transferred from Infosys. The credit rating of the company is A-, in February 2015, Infosys announced it would acquire the US automation technology company Panaya for around $200 million. On 15 January 2016, Infosys had 1,045 clients across 50 countries, Infosys has a global footprint with offices and development centres across the world
