New electric Mercedes-Benz aiming to give Tesla a run for its money as company invests €500m in Hambach plant May 18, 2018 Daimler, the owner of Mercedes-Benz, has announced that it plans to invest €500m (£437m) in its Hambach factory in France to move production of its upcoming electric compact Mercedes-Benz. By 2022, Mercedes-Benz plans to launch more than 10 new electric cars, from compact sized to SUVs, and that the Smart brand, also owned by Daimler [...]
Last Week in the City: England has an 8.5% chance of winning the World Cup May 18, 2018 | City Talk Garry White, chief investment commentator, looks at the market-moving events that have shaped the UK equity markets this week (14 to 18 May 2018). UBS has used its City analysts’ predictive firepower to try and work out the winner of the upcoming World Cup in Russia – and England came surprisingly high in its league [...]
Twitter’s Jack Dorsey endorses bitcoin hoping it will become the internet’s ‘native currency’ May 18, 2018 Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey endorsed bitcoin at the cryptocurrency conference Consensus in New York saying that it should be the official currency of the internet. Dorsey, who is also chief executive of the mobile payment service Square, has now become a public supporter of cryptocurrencies saying he is a “huge fan” of the growing [...]
Crossrail latest: Transport for London (TfL) takes over Heathrow Connect services ahead of Elizabeth Line opening in December May 18, 2018 A key step on the way to the full opening of the Elizabeth Line will be reached this weekend when Transport for London (TfL) takes over the Heathrow Connect services between Paddington and Heathrow terminals two, three and four. On Monday 21 May, TfL will also take over the half hourly Great Western Railway (GWR) [...]
Cambridge Analytica files for bankruptcy in the US after Facebook privacy row May 18, 2018 Cambridge Analytica, the company at the centre of the Facebook storm over privacy, has filed for voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy in New York. The UK political consulting company voluntarily submitted a petition to declare bankruptcy at the US Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York late last night. Cambridge Analytica had been under fire after [...]
Competition and Markets Authority starts scrutiny of Sainsbury’s-Asda merger ahead of formal investigation May 18, 2018 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said today it was kicking off its scrutiny of the proposed merger between supermarket giants Sainsbury’s and Asda. Sainsbury’s announced at the end of last month that it intended to merge with Asda, which is currently owned by Walmart in the US. The two have said a deal will [...]
Lloyds Bank share price rises after striking £4bn deal with Barclays to offload its loss-making Irish mortgage book May 18, 2018 Lloyds Bank today struck a deal to sell its multi-billion euro Irish property book to rival Barclays – a move that crystallises a £110m loss for the lender. Barclays, which is fronting the deal on behalf of a number of parties such as M&G Prudential, will pay £4bn for a mountain Lloyds’ residential mortgages from [...]
Ocado’s tech prowess must be celebrated May 18, 2018 It took a mega deal with a US grocer for Ocado to prove that it’s no basket case. The online grocer saw shares soar more than 80 per cent during trading yesterday after it announced that Kroger, one of the world’s biggest grocery chains with annual sales of $122bn (£90bn), will now use Ocado’s technology to [...]
Italy’s new government is set to wreck either the euro or itself May 18, 2018 Italy is not leaving the euro, in case you were wondering. This pronouncement came from Alfonso Bonafede, a heavyweight in the insurgent Five Star Movement (M5S) that now looks set to lead the country. Of course, the fact that a spokesperson from what will be the governing party of the Eurozone’s third largest economy had [...]
The case for tobacco packaging restrictions goes up in smoke May 18, 2018 In 2016 and 2017, two significant pieces of tobacco control legislation came into effect in the UK and France. One was the EU’s Second Tobacco Control Directive (TPD2), which applied across the EU. The other was standardised packaging requirements, introduced only in individual countries, with the UK and France being the first. As well as [...]