London Sports Festival moves from 3×3 basketball success to pickleball at the City of London Corporation’s Guildhall Yard
Tui confirms German parent company merger December 11, 2014 Holiday company Tui Travel confirmed this morning that it will go ahead with a merger with its €6.5bn (£5bn) German parent, Tui AG, as planned. This morning the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it had suspended trading at the behest of the company. It will then re-list as Tui AG on 17 December. Between them, [...]
Investec issues apology to Benjamin Lawsky after analyst Ian Gordon’s Eric Garner gaffe December 10, 2014 South African bank Investec gave US regulator Benjamin Lawsky a grovelling apology last night, after one of its analysts compared Lawsky’s actions against Standard Chartered to the treatment of Eric Garner – an unarmed black man who died at the hands of police officers in America. At a time of inflamed tensions over police behaviour in the [...]
Google Tax to prompt tech giants to kill Irish tax deals as government cracks down on avoidance tactics December 10, 2014 Rules, detailed by the government yesterday, aimed at clamping down on tax avoidance by tech giants including Google and Apple, could force US multinationals to start winding down “artificial arrangements” used to divert profits abroad. “What they’re trying to do is say ‘if you have a UK presence and if you are making UK sales, [...]
Miliband braces his would-be cabinet for years of budget cuts December 10, 2014 LABOUR leader Ed Miliband will today prepare his shadow cabinet for years of departmental budget cuts as he promises to deal with the deficit while protecting public services. Miliband will use his speech to set out how a future Labour government would balance the books without cutting the state to 1930s levels – an accusation [...]
NHS would be in trouble without migrant workers December 10, 2014 The NHS would be “in dire straits” without migrant workers, one of the UK’s senior economists claimed yesterday. Office for Budget Responsibility board member Stephen Nickell told the Treasury Select Committee that 35 per cent of health professionals came from outside the UK. When asked whether immigration had a positive or negative impact on the [...]
Weather bomb goes off in Northern Britain December 10, 2014 PHENOMENAL waves, winds of up to 144mph, blizzards and rain hit north-western parts of the UK yesterday as part of a huge storm system that knocked out power and transport links across the country. Explosive cyclogenesis – a so-called weather bomb – is when a storm grows stronger as the pressure at its centre drops [...]
Snap! Instagram leaves Twitter in the dust with 300m daily users December 10, 2014 FACEBOOK’S photo-sharing service, Instagram, yesterday said it now had more than 300m users sharing over 70m photos and videos each day. Meanwhile, microblogging service Twitter, which recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange, reaching a valuation of $23.4bn (£14.8bn), had just 284m active users, according to its website. Instagram, bought by Facebook in April [...]
Walgreen’s chief Greg Wasson to retire after Alliance Boots mega-merger December 10, 2014 US drugstore chain operator Walgreen has said its chief executive Greg Wasson will retire after the completion of its pending takeover of Alliance Boots, owner of the UK high street pharmacy Boots. Stefano Pessina, executive chairman of Alliance Boots, will serve as acting chief executive after Wasson steps down. “With the creation of Walgreens Boots [...]
Northern Rock to repay £261m: Thousands of customers to receive over £6,000 each December 10, 2014 The remains of Northern Rock have been ordered to pay back £261m in interest and fees to borrowers, due to badly worded paperwork, the High Court decided yesterday. Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM) is owned by the government, which nationalised the Newcastle-based lender when it collapsed in 2007. As a result, the bill for compensation [...]
HSBC fires top European foreign exchange trader in wake of fine December 10, 2014 HSBC has dismissed a top foreign exchange trading executive, following a £389m fine it received from US and UK regulators over market manipulation. Stuart Scott, head of forex trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), was let go on Tuesday, City A.M. understands. HSBC’s forex trading division has cost the bank hundreds of [...]