Cala expansion push into south boosts profits October 20, 2014 CALA Group profits soared last year after the upmarket housebuilder’s acquisition of Banner Homes helped bolster its presence in the affluent south and London’s commuter towns. The Edinburgh-based group, which develops upmarket properties in Scotland, the Midlands and the Home Counties, saw pre-tax profits almost doubled from £12.6m to £27.3m in the year to 30 [...]
TechCrunch Disrupt: Neelie Kroes dodges Jean-Claude Juncker question as AOL’s Tim Armstrong denies Yahoo merger October 20, 2014 European Union digital commissioner Neelie Kroes performed some masterful sidestepping at TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference in Old Billingsgate. The outgoing head enjoyed a grilling from TechCrunch’s editor-at-large Mike Butcher on stage including a cheeky question about her boss, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and his rumoured appreciation of fine wine. Butcher jokingly asked if Juncker liked [...]
National Ethical Investment Week rebranded as Good Money Week to broaden remit October 20, 2014 Those of you feverishly anticipating the return of National Ethical Investment Week will have been disappointed yesterday by its demise. The campaign has been killed off by the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) and rebranded as Good Money Week. Why? “To make it more accessible to a wider audience,” says the group’s website. [...]
Boris Johnson continues gas-bagging at #AskBoris Twitter question time October 20, 2014 Boris Johnson flexed his fingers and hit Twitter yesterday for his monthly #AskBoris question time and, as usual, the mayor didn’t disappoint with his flamboyant answers. He made an extraterrestrial quip when asked about the reinstatement of Peckham Lido, tweeting #takemetoyourlido. He said if he were to spend a night in any building at [...]
Florentijn Hofman’s giant sculpture HippopoThames hits St Katharine Docks October 20, 2014 Visitors to the City’s St Katherine Docks might have noticed an interesting addition of late. Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s giant sculpture HippopoThames has been resident for a few weeks and this weekend will be honoured with a special hippo-themed family day on Saturday, replete with games and treats. We can’t wait.
Now Shire loses finance chief after deal fails October 20, 2014 SHIRE’S chief financial officer (CFO) James Bowling is leaving the company at the end of the first quarter of 2015 to take up the top finance role at water company Severn Trent, replacing retiring CFO Mike McKeon. Flemming Ornskov, Shire’s chief executive, said: “James has helped build and lead a high-quality finance team at Shire. [...]
EE set to cut 350 jobs October 20, 2014 Mobile operator EE is planning to cut 350 jobs including its Hatfield headquarters as the firm looks to slim down its marketing, finance, legal and account management teams. The move comes just days after reports that EE’s owners, Orange and Deutsche Telekom, are back in talks for either a float or sale of the business [...]
GoCompare bites back after The Big Deal’s claims that price comparison websites are hiding cheapest deals October 20, 2014 Price comparison website GoCompare has hit back at energy site The Big Deal’s claims that “all the major price comparison websites” are hiding the cheapest deals from customers. The Big Deal conducted research on Compare the Market, Confused, GoCompare, MoneySupermarket and uSwitch, and has called on the government to take action over its findings. The company [...]
Amazon hires for Christmas: 13,000 temporary UK jobs to be created over festive period October 20, 2014 Amazon is set to create an extra 13,000 temporary jobs in the UK over the Christmas season as the online giant braces itself for the busiest trading period of the year. The company announced yesterday it will hire people to work across it eight fulfilment centres across the UK and its customer service centre [...]
CGI creates 650 new Welsh jobs October 20, 2014 SOME 650 IT jobs are being promised for south Wales after Canadian IT services firm CGI announced it is planning to expand its Bridgend offices. The Welsh government are offering CGI a £3.2m grant to support the job-creation over five years. CGI provides cloud computing, cyber security and other IT service functions and currently employs [...]