How a viral TikTok video about Prosecco helped Lidl record its busiest ever sales day January 9, 2023 Emma D’Arcy’s viral TikTok Negroni Sbagliato fad helped budget supermarket Lidl achieve its busiest day of trading in its 28-year history after sales of booze skyrocketed. The discount retailer recorded its busiest day ever on Friday 23rd December following a surge in customers switching over from more expensive rivals. The record trading came as [...]
UK class-action lawsuits against Google, Apple and Sony see value of competition claims surge to £26bn January 9, 2023 The value of UK competition class-actions surged last year, according to new data published today, following the filing of a series of multi-billion-pound claims against some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Apple, Google and Sony. The value of class-action lawsuits filed in the UK over claims around anti-competitive behaviour surged six-fold over the [...]
Zopa Bank: Surviving recessions, battling digital banks and whether it will float in London this year January 9, 2023 Zopa is a firm that has weathered economic crises before. When the global financial crisis swept through the economy in 2008, the London-headquartered fintech was a little-known but early-moving peer-to-peer (p2p) lending shop connecting borrowers with willing investors. Banks had unsurprisingly reined in loans and hauled up the barricades, leaving consumers scrambling for cash through other [...]
BDO in the spotlight over Home REIT audit January 9, 2023 BDO is facing questions over its audit of troubled property investor Home REIT, after it was asked to look again at the social housing firm’s books amid accusations executives had been ‘round-tripping’ revenues and inflated the value of its property portfolio. Home REIT, which invests in housing for vulnerable groups, was forced to delay the [...]
Branson: Britain doesn’t appreciate private enterprise – and don’t call me a billionaire January 9, 2023 SIR RICHARD BRANSON has warned the UK no longer appreciates entrepreneurship – as he prepares the UK’s first ever rocket launch. Virgin Orbit is set to send a 747 named Cosmic Girl to 40,000 feet as soon as this evening – taking off from a spaceport in Cornwall – at which point it will then release a [...]
UK fintech funding tumbles amid global slowdown, but London remains well ahead of global rivals January 9, 2023 Investment into the UK’s fintech sector slumped eight per cent last year as soaring inflation and the shocks of war in Ukraine brought an end to a decade-long global venture capital frenzy, figures shared exclusively with City A.M. reveal.
The Notebook: Dogs in the office, Next’s triumph, and the Madoff documentary January 8, 2023 The Notebook is a new addition to City A.M.’s daily offering, giving the City of London’s movers and shakers the chance to let a few things off their chest. In this first edition – it’s our editor, Andy Silvester, penning his thoughts. ONE of the things that fascinated me as a child were ant farms [...]
UK public procurement reforms could create £4bn ‘accountability gap’, campaigners warn January 8, 2023 Plans to overhaul the UK’s public procurement processes risk creating an “accountability gap” around the use of public funds, anti-corruption campaigners have warned. The plans, which aim to make it easier for small businesses to win contracts from the UK government, seek to simplify the country’s procurement processes and make them easier to navigate. The [...]
EY builds £2bn war chest to fund M&A spree for newly-separated consulting arm January 8, 2023 EY is creating a $2.5bn war chest to finance acquisitions of consulting businesses as it pushes ahead with plans to spin off its advisory arm into an entirely separate firm. The Big Four accounting firm is setting aside a sum of $2.5bn (£2.07bn) to fund an M&A spree for its newly-separated consulting arm, with a [...]
Hargreaves Lansdown’s shares appear to rally as founder rounds on trading platform’s bosses over hybrid advice plans January 8, 2023 The co-founder of trading platform Hargreaves Lansdown has launched a scathing attack on “unnecessary and irrelevant” programmes launched by its outgoing chief today, after a collapse in the FTSE 100 firm’s share price over the past three years.