Investors ‘reluctant’ to splash cash on UK banks amid crisis in Number 10 Banking UK banks’ stock prices are being slapped with a political risk premium, City analysts have warned, as turmoil in Downing Street threatens to rock the sector. The FTSE 350 bank index has had a choppy start to the year with financial stocks facing a hammering from the Iran war as investors trimmed their equities exposure. [...]
Australian pharma giant Sigma quits Boots takeover talks Retail Australian pharmacy giant Sigma has walked away from talks over a £7.5bn private takeover of Boots, renewing hopes that the high street pharmacy could float in London. The Australian firm said on Monday that a deal with Boots would not meet its investment objectives, leaving just the billionaire Weston family in sales talks with the [...]
Give me home Euros over World Cup, but is it really worth £557m of taxpayers’ money? Sport Business I’m sure I’ll enjoy much of the 2026 World Cup, provided I can stay awake late enough, but I’ll approach Euro 2028 with far greater enthusiasm. Home nations competing on home soil in British Summer Time and with advertisers and broadcasters whipping up interest among the general populace. What’s not to like, other than violent [...]
Mark Kleinman: BP might do well to plug credibility gap with Soames June 11, 2026 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his City AM column BP might do well to plug credibility gap with Soames Now that the dust has begun to settle on Albert Manifold’s ousting as BP chairman, the mutual recriminations between the company and its erstwhile leader have begun [...]
More than 80 retail bosses urge Starmer to tackle youth unemployment crisis June 10, 2026 More than 80 retail bosses have called on the Prime Minister to set out urgent measures to tackle youth unemployment, warning that the “ladder of opportunity for young people is wobbling”. The chiefs of leading retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and John Lewis have called on Sir Keir Starmer to safeguard the position of retail as [...]
Boots eyes £7.5bn sale in blow to hopes of London IPO June 10, 2026 The owners of Boots are weighing up a £7.5bn sale which would dash hopes of a London listing and deal another blow to the UK’s stock exchange. Sycamore Partners, the private equity firm which bought Boots’ parent company for $23.7bn last year, has been in talks with a number of suitors since before Easter. The [...]
The Debate: Should we build a data centre on Brick Lane? June 10, 2026 It may be better known for bagels, but times they are a changing. Should we put a data centre on Brick Lane? We hear the case for and against.
Retailers ramp up pressure on Reeves to scrap tax break for e-commerce rivals May 27, 2026 Retailers have urged Rachel Reeves to “revitalise the high street” by speeding up plans to close a tax break which they say unfairly favours Chinese e-commerce rivals. High street giants like Next, M&S and Primark have urged the Chancellor to impose a £2.60 flat fee on small parcels to rebalance a system which they say [...]
As it happened: Choppy finish for FTSE 100 as global markets rocked by AI sell-off May 19, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Businesses have raised the alarm over falling vacancies as new data showed a further weakening in the jobs market. Vacancies remained at a five-year low in April 2026, with a leading industry group saying recruiters were “pausing” plans to hire workers. The British Chambers of Commerce’s head of [...]
Tech firm behind in-store ads at Currys and Iceland goes bust May 13, 2026 The firm that provides high street giants Currys and Iceland with in-store digital advertising has declared insolvency, City AM can reveal. Software company Stratacache announced its winding-up of its UK operations and appointed liquidators on Wednesday, according to insolvency filings. This comes only months after the US digital screen specialist partnered with budget supermarket giant [...]