European Commissioner vows to probe Fifa sell-off amid furious backlash July 29, 2026 Furious European Commissioner for Sport, Glenn Micallef, has vowed that the EC will investigate Fifa’s controversial proposals to sell stakes in a new commercial entity to outside investors. Football’s world governing body on Monday revealed plans to raise $4bn by selling minority holdings in a new vehicle, Fifa Forward Enterprise, that would control all commercial [...]
Mike Ashley’s Frasers circles Burberry in latest luxury swoop July 29, 2026 Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group is eyeing up a holding in Burberry as its latest push into luxury fashion. Frasers has revealed that it holds the rights to a 4.2 per cent stake in the British fashion house, which would make Ashley’s group one of its biggest shareholders. The position is held through put options, which [...]
St James’s Place suffers £1bn hit to flows as investors look to dodge pension tax July 29, 2026 St James’s Place took a £1bn hit to net inflows in the first half of the year as investors pulled cash from its funds to dodge market volatility and a looming pension tax bill. Net inflows declined from £3.8bn to £2.7bn in the first half of the year, in line with analyst expectations. The group [...]
PwC thought leadership reports ‘100 per cent AI generated’ July 29, 2026 The Big Four giant PwC has been found to have published four ‘thought leadership’ reports that show a pattern of irresponsible AI usage, including hallucinated citations and fabricated claims. A probe by GPTZero, a company that makes AI detection software, focused on four reports published between 2024 and 2026 by PwC Middle East and found [...]
Glencore and Rio Tinto strike gold on high commodity prices July 29, 2026 Rio Tinto and Glencore have posted near-record updates thanks to this year’s sky-high commodity prices and the uncertainty wrought by the Middle East conflict. Mining juggernaut Rio Tinto notched a 43 per cent jump in profit over the first six months of the year, pointing to persistently elevated metals prices and the ambitious efficiency programme [...]
Ofgem targets speculative AI data centres to free up Britain’s energy grid July 29, 2026 Ofgem has announced plans to stop speculative AI data centre projects clogging up Britain’s electricity grid, after applications for new power connections more than tripled in less than a year. The energy regulator is consulting on a new upfront commitment fee for large data centre developers, alongside tougher rules requiring projects to prove they are [...]
On a roll: Greggs shares soar as it doubles down on aggressive expansion July 29, 2026 Shares in Greggs soared on Wednesday as the bakery chain said it plans to reach at least 3,500 stores in the UK after a jump in profit in the first half of the year. The sausage roll purveyor reported a 20 per cent boost in pre-tax profit to £76m in the six months to June, [...]
Record Interactive Investor inflows drives profit rise at Aberdeen July 29, 2026 A surge in inflows at Interactive Investor helped wealth firm Aberdeen achieve rising profit in the first half of the year. The investment platform signed up tens of thousands of new customers, growing customer numbers by 14 per cent to 525,000 over the period, as the firm won out against rivals in the battle to [...]
Bumper IPL takeovers boost T20 cricket franchise league’s value to over $20bn July 29, 2026 Multiple blockbuster team sales have boosted the Indian Premier League’s business value to more than $20bn, according to a new report by global investment bank Houlihan Lokey. The IPL’s value has increased more than 11 per cent year-on-year to $20.6bn following the takeovers of franchises Royal Challengers Bengaluru for a record $1.78bn and Rajasthan Royals [...]
Sage accelerates AI expansion as revenue grows July 29, 2026 Sage said it is accelerating the roll-out of AI across its product lines on Wednesday as it reported another quarter of double-digit revenue growth, fuelled by a boost in demand for its cloud accounting software. The FTSE 100 software company said revenue rose 11 per cent to £2.06bn in the nine months to 30 June, [...]