Digital bank Atom raises £25m to fund biometric development December 4, 2014 High profile investors, including Jon Moulton, Jim O’Neill and Sir Peter Vardy, invested in challenger bank Atom yesterday. Their involvement brings the total equity invested so far to £25m. Neil Woodford’s CF Woodford Equity Income Fund is the biggest new shareholder. Jon Moulton Some of the money will be spent on creating new technologies [...]
Numis wants UK to take lead in tech deals December 4, 2014 BRITAIN’S investors could get a chance to buy into more home-grown tech firms in the coming year, as the market becomes more mature, the boss of brokerage Numis told City A.M. yesterday. Typically, UK tech firms sell out to US rivals, or float on stock markets over the Atlantic. “Those firms don’t have to go [...]
No banking unit safe from probes December 4, 2014 EVERY part of Britain’s banks will be open to scrutiny by the new Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), its chief executive Alex Chisholm said yesterday. He denied the body was swayed by politicians and their focus on retail banking. Chisholm insisted his mandate covered any type of anti-competitive behaviour across the whole sector. So far, retail [...]
Ethiopia becomes poorest country to issue bond December 4, 2014 The government of Ethiopia has launched its first ever dollar bond, becoming the poorest country ever to raise money in the international sovereign market, it was revealed yesterday. The bond is for $1bn (£638m) and has a term of 10 years. It also has the relatively low yield of 6.625 per cent – only one per [...]
Andrew Tyrie’s claim about banks’ back-door lobbying is holed December 4, 2014 There are few things bankers dread more than being summoned for hours of intellectual flagellation by Andrew Tyrie, the relentless chairman of the Treasury Select Committee. He has scored several notable victories, including a blueprint for regulators to hold reserve powers to break up major UK banks. On his latest target – [...]
Uber reaches $40bn valuation in $1.2bn fundraising as it bids to expand services December 4, 2014 RIDEHIRE service Uber has raised a massive $1.2bn (£765m) in its latest funding round, finally confirming the previously rumoured investment in a blog post last night. Travis Kalanick, Uber’s founder and chief executive, said the funding would be used “to make substantial investments, particularly in the Asia Pacific region.” The round is understood to value [...]
Glaxo abandons sale of its older drugs portfolio December 4, 2014 British pharma giant GlaxoSmith-Kline revealed late yesterday afternoon that it would not be going ahead with the sale of a portfolio of old drugs that had been valued at over $3bn (£1.9bn). Chief executive Sir Andrew Witty had talked up interest in the selection of off-patent treatments last summer, with several private equity firms believed [...]
Sky sells majority stake in Sky Bet for £600m to focus on European TV December 4, 2014 BROADCASTER Sky yesterday sold a controlling stake in its online betting and gaming business Sky Bet to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in a £720m deal. The deal, which comes just weeks after Sky completed the £7bn takeover of its European sister companies Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, will see Sky receive an initial [...]
Orange expects BT to decide on £10bn EE takeover by Christmas December 4, 2014 THE CHIEF executive of French telecoms group Orange, Stephane Richard, said yesterday that he expected BT to decide before Christmas on whether to bid for the UK’s largest mobile network operator, EE, or its smaller rival, Telefonica’s O2. “BT has its own calendar,” said Richard, speaking at a conference on France’s economy and business climate, according [...]
Barnes & Noble ends deal with Microsoft December 4, 2014 BOOKS giant Barnes & Noble has struck a deal to buy Microsoft’s stake in Nook Media, ending a two-year partnership and clearing the way for it to spin off its loss-making e-reader and digital content division. The value of the cash and share deal is about $125m.