Former SSE boss Ian Marchant invests in London smart home startup January 21, 2019 A London-based smart home technology startup, backed by the former chief of SSE Ian Marchant, today announced that it has raised £2m in a new funding round. Den, which has now raised a total of £5m, is also backed by Mark Davies, a founder of Betfair. Read more: Stay on top of your resolutions with the [...]
Hacking Wall Street: Are tech unicorns about to disrupt stock market flotations? January 21, 2019 Tech companies have changed the way we chat, bank, travel and date. Are they about to disrupt capital markets too? “In [Silicon] Valley there’s always been that mentality: how do we hack Wall Street?” says Rob Kniaz, a founder of tech-focused venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures. Two weeks ago reports broke that Slack, the workplace [...]
London office transactions hit highest level since 2014 January 21, 2019 Central London office investment transactions in 2018 hit £17.6bn, a 10 per cent rise on 2017 and the highest level since 2014. According to real estate firm CBRE, there was £5bn of investment transactions in the fourth quarter of 2018, which marked a 16 per cent rise in investment volumes compared to the third quarter [...]
Employers to boost graduate jobs by record nine per cent in 2019 despite Brexit concerns January 21, 2019 The UK’s top employers are set to boost graduate jobs by a record nine per cent this year despite growing uncertainty over Brexit. The country’s leading 100 graduate employers have indicated a surge in recruitment could be on the horizon in 2019, according to a report conducted by research firm High Fliers. It comes after [...]
Big Six energy firms slammed by customers in satisfaction survey as smaller suppliers prove popular January 21, 2019 The country’s biggest energy firms have fallen out of favour with customers as smaller suppliers topped a consumer satisfaction survey. The so-called Big Six energy suppliers – British Gas, EDF, Eon, Npower, Scottish Power and SSE – were left languishing at the bottom of the table following a Which survey of 8,000 customers across the [...]
Mike Ashley enters talks to buy struggling music store chain HMV and eyes new PR team January 20, 2019 Mike Ashley is looking to strengthen his grip on the high street by entering talks to buy struggling music store HMV while searching for a new communications firm to oversee his expanding retail empire. The ambitious business tycoon, who has bought House of Fraser and Evans Cycles in the past six months, is bidding to [...]
Former Superdry boss could call shareholder meeting to force return January 20, 2019 Former Superdry boss Julian Dunkerton has said he will call an extraordinary general meeting of the company’s shareholders in the next four weeks in a bid to return to the company. Dunkerton, who co-founded the business, has been campaigning to return to the company, after a string of profit warnings and a calamitous drop in [...]
Case alleging Libor-rigging launched against raft of major banks January 20, 2019 A string of major banks have been accused of rigging the Libor benchmark again, five years on from a major scandal. A class action has been filed in the US against banks such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC, UBS, Bank of America, Citi and Deutsche Bank. The action, which [...]
Government under pressure to ban Huawei from 5G upgrade January 20, 2019 The government is facing pressure to decide whether to ban Chinese company Huawei from involvement in the UK’s 5G infrastructure upgrade. Commons science and technology committee chairman Norman Lamb has pressed culture secretary Jeremy Wright to explain whether the UK will ban the telecoms giant over concerns about espionage. America, New Zealand and Australia, which [...]
Prominent MP slams City watchdog over lack of action on allegations of interest swap mis-selling January 20, 2019 A prominent MP has blasted the head of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Andrew Bailey over the watchdog’s response to alleged mis-selling by Clydesdale Bank. Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake, head of the all party parliamentary group on fair business banking, said the FCA had failed to “press the case for justice and compensation” for thousands [...]