The City’s Brexit plans are “impossible” for the EU says former political head of the City of London Corporation June 20, 2018 The City of London’s Brexit plans are “impossible” and should be abandoned in favour of continued membership of the EU’s Single Market, according to the man who led the Square Mile’s top lobbying body in the run-up to the EU referendum. Mark Boleat, the policy director of the City of London Corporation until May last [...]
Why Debenhams has had three profit warnings in a year and could Mike Ashley help? June 20, 2018 City grandee Crispin Odey, whose hedge fund holds a short position in Debenhams, said last year that the retailer was in a race with House of Fraser “as to who will go down first”. While House of Fraser’s fate will be sealed at its CVA on Friday, Debenhams’ future looks dark, with the embattled department [...]
London restaurants Albion, Parabola and Lutyens close as Sir Terence Conran and Peter Prescott venture folds June 20, 2018 Another string of restaurants in London have closed after the company Prescott & Conran went into administration. Albion, a British cuisine restaurant in Clerkenwell, closed today, as did Lutyens in Fleet Street and Parabola in Kensington. Another restaurant in the portfolio, Covent Garden's Les Deux Salons, closed in March. Today Duff & Phelps announced that [...]
It’s been almost two years since the Brexit vote – where now for the pound? June 20, 2018 It's been an eventful two years to say the least. As our negotiators go to great lengths to untangle Britain from the European Union, no asset reflects this tumultuous journey more than sterling. In the fortnight after the June 2016 referendum, the pound plunged to $1.28 from $1.49. With most speculators pricing in a [...]
Single Market for goods, not services is only way to solve Brexit headaches, argues CER boss Charles Grant June 20, 2018 The only way to resolve the Irish border problem and prevent disruption of manufacturers' supply chains is for the UK to remain in the Single Market for goods, the head of a leading think tank has claimed. Writing for the Financial Times, Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform, claimed that "it is a [...]
Ethical Concerns and Your Career June 20, 2018 | City Talk Has an employer’s business practices ever created ethical concerns for you? Has it affected your career? It turns out the commitment to uphold the highest ethical standards within the investment management industry does not come without risks. In a poll, we asked readers if doubts about whether their employer’s business practices were ethical have influenced [...]
Wanted: Tory candidate who gets London June 19, 2018 Nominations for the Tories’ London mayoral candidate open this month, reminding us that London elections have been unkind to the Conservatives lately. The 2016 mayoral election, when Labour’s Sadiq Khan defeated Tory Zac Goldsmith 44 to 35 per cent on first preference votes – 57 to 43 with second preferences for other candidates counted – [...]
Explosive report published into Lloyds’s handling of HBos Reading fraud case June 19, 2018 Lloyds bank and consultancy giant KPMG came under renewed pressure today following the publication of a damning report into an historic fraud case at HBos’s Reading branch. The internal report by a Lloyds Banking Group employee, who has since departed the firm, details allegations of criminal misconduct by senior bank staff and auditors around the [...]
European equities: Profit growth continues to drive the rally June 19, 2018 In his European equity funds Berenberg European Focus Fund and Berenberg Eurozone Focus Fund, which were launched in early October 2017, fund manager Matthias Born focuses on enterprises with stable profit growth. And so naturally he is delighted that corporate profits in Europe rose strongly again in 2017, for the first time in a long [...]