Crystal Palace stadium set for £130m revamp with 25,000 seats July 24, 2026 Plans for the £130m refurbishment of a major 25,000-capacity south London stadium in Crystal Palace have been given the green light. The planning application for the renovation of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre has been approved with the refurbishment set to feature a revamped swimming and diving pool, as well as a padel centre, [...]
West Ham United London Stadium deal costing taxpayers £19m a year July 24, 2026 The London Stadium deal between West Ham United and City Hall costs taxpayers £19m a year, the stadium company’s chair has revealed. A deal signed in 2013 between then Mayor of London Boris Johnson and bigwigs at the Hammers sees the former Premier League side pay £4.6m in rent per year, dropping this season due [...]
HSBC sells Singapore insurance arm to Allianz in £1.6bn deal July 24, 2026 FTSE 100 HSBC has agreed to sell its health and life insurance business to German insurance giant Allianz for $2.1bn (£1.6bn) as it refocuses its strategy on Singapore’s wealth management. The banking giant agreed to sell its Singapore business to Allianz in a transaction that is expected to be completed in the first half of [...]
Sky and ITV mount defence of £1.6bn merger as regulators probe deal July 24, 2026 Sky and ITV will argue their proposed £1.6bn merger controls only around a fifth of Britain’s advertising market as they seek to convince competition regulators to approve one of the biggest media deals in decades, City AM understands. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday invited comments on Sky’s planned acquisition of ITV’s Media [...]
Wise denied US banking licence in blow to expansion plans July 24, 2026 Shares in Wise plunged on Friday after the firm was denied a US banking licence by regulators, setting back the payments giant in its biggest growth market just months after it switched its primary stock market listing to New York. The London-founded fintech said the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) had [...]
Brits dodge the high street as heatwave boosts online shopping July 24, 2026 Retail sales jumped in June as the heatwave and heavy discounting drove Brits towards online shopping. The volume of retail sales jumped by one per cent in June, having slowed slightly from 1.2 per cent growth in May, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Online shopping grew to the largest proportion of total [...]
As it happened: Stocks jump as oil drops below $100; Trump in tariff blitz July 24, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM FTSE 100 liveblog. Stocks jumped on Friday after oil eased back after reaching two-month highs on Thursday. The benchmark price of Brent crude oil slipped 4.1 per cent on Friday to $96.63 per barrel. Prices had surged to $100 following attacks by the Houthis, an Iran-backed militia based in Yemen, on [...]
Housebuilder hits a wall: How did Vistry become the UK’s most shorted stock? July 24, 2026 Vistry, the “nation’s favourite housebuilder,” has become the UK’s most shorted stock. From a shift to a bold new model to hopes that it can fuel Burnham’s housing vision, Felix Armstrong unpicks the firm’s recent history Back in 2024, Vistry boss Greg Fitzgerald was brimming with optimism. The housebuilder’s ambitious switch from a private market [...]
Saracens and Harlequins embracing athletics and hockey smart move for rugby July 24, 2026 Despite this weekend appearing to be the first in an eternity without top-flight rugby, the reality is that across England we have never had so little of it. Take Harlequins or Saracens, the two Prem Rugby clubs in London, and recent fixture announcements lay bare the underlying reason as to why so many teams make [...]
A beginner’s guide to appeasing the bond market – and why it matters July 24, 2026 Britain’s enormous debt pile means the bond market now has the power to decide the fate of a government. Ali Lyon spoke to gilt investors to see how our new Chancellor can keep them happy. When John Healey was last in the Treasury, the world was a very different place. Britain’s economy was growing at [...]