Bridgepoint buys £750m vehicle rental company from fellow private equity firm HgCapital January 30, 2017 The UK’s largest vehicle rental company has been traded between two private equity firms in a £750m deal. Bridgepoint this morning announced the acquisition of Leeds-based Zenith from HgCapital. Zenith, which also has operations in Solihull and Wokingham, has more than 500 employees and a fleet of around 85,000 vehicles. Read more: Is private equity [...]
Morale in Europe’s businesses rises to highest since before the Eurozone debt crisis hit in March 2011 January 30, 2017 Confidence in the Eurozone economy has jumped to its highest level since before the debt crisis six years ago ravaged the bloc’s businesses. The European Commission’s economic sentiment indicator rose above economists’ expectations to 108.2, a reading not seen since March 2011. Industry confidence increased markedly, as production expectations grew more optimistic. However, confidence in [...]
MPs will decide tomorrow if the Trump petition will be debated in Parliament January 30, 2017 A group of MPs will tomorrow decide if a petition calling for Donald Trump's state visit to be ditched – which gained more than one million signatures – will be debated in Parliament. Earlier reports suggested the visit by the US President would go ahead despite opposition from politicians and the petition. The government has rejected the calls, according to the BBC, citing unnamed sources [...]
Volkswagen has become the world’s biggest carmaker January 30, 2017 Volkswagen has overtaken Toyota as the biggest carmaker in the world. Toyota has announced that it made 10.175m cars last year, less than Volkswagen's 10.3m – the first time Toyota has lagged behind its German rival for four years. Read more: Volkswagen shares crash in line with brand woe The Japanese carmaker said its exports to [...]
A petition against Trump coming to the UK now has one million signatures January 30, 2017 A petition to prevent Donald Trump from visiting the UK in the form of an official state visit has now gathered more than one million signatures in the wake of the President's executive order banning travel to the US from seven majority Muslim countries. The government must respond to the petition after gaining more than the 10,000 signatures required [...]
St Paul’s station is closed due to a power failure and Central line trains are not stopping January 30, 2017 St Paul's station in the City was closed this morning due to a power failure in the local area. Central line trains were not stopping at the station as a result of the closure. Engineers are currently on site at the station, which reopened briefly – but had to shut again due to the same [...]
Number of firms in financial stress grows for thirteenth quarter in a row January 30, 2017 Over 275,000 companies were showing sings of financial distress at the end of 2016, the thirteenth quarter in a row that business stress in the UK has risen. The figures from insolvency firm Begbies Traynor show that the number of companies battling 'significant' financial distress grew three per cent year-on-year in the final quarter of 2016. Read [...]
What exactly is fake news? And 11 more questions MPs will ask tech and media companies in a new inquiry January 30, 2017 What is fake news? That's just one of the 11 questions politicians will seek to answer in a fresh inquiry into the phrase du-jour favoured by Donald Trump MPs have set their sights on tech companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter, warning they must tackle fake news in the same way as they fight online piracy and [...]
Spain’s economy grows faster than the UK in 2016 January 30, 2017 Spain’s economy grew faster than the UK during 2016, as the tentative recovery in one of the countries hardest hit by the Eurozone crisis stabilises further. Growth of 0.7 per cent in the final quarter was enough to push growth in 2016 to 3.2 per cent, according to preliminary estimates from the National Statistics Institute [...]
The NASDAQ of advertising: Reprogramming programmatic with Infectious Media January 30, 2017 About 10 years ago, programmatic advertising was but a twinkle in the eye of some Silicon Valley bods, determined to bring about a sea change to digital advertising transactions. They were unaware, perhaps, of the flood that opening this sluice would bring to AdLand, nor the landscape that would remain when the new tide washed [...]