Cohort of MPs led by Jack Dromey and Rachel MacLean call for Melrose’s bid for GKN to be blocked March 6, 2018 A group of 16 MPs have written to business secretary Greg Clark calling for the government to block Melrose’s £7.4bn hostile bid for GKN. Led by Labour’s Jack Dromey and Conservative MP Rachel MacLean, the group said Melrose’s takeover “should not succeed” due to the possible risk it would pose 6,000 jobs which GKN creates [...]
London water shortage problems: Water is still out across large parts of London as Thames Water apologises and Chuka Umunna calls for public inquiry March 6, 2018 Many Londoners are still without water as Thames Water struggles to restore full service after last week’s extreme weather. The utility company apologised to customers who have had now water for several days now, in particular in the south of the capital. “The sudden drop in temperature has put pressure on our older cast iron [...]
Former Co-op chair Paul Flowers, aka the “Crystal Methodist”, has only just been banned from the financial services industry March 6, 2018 Paul Flowers, the former Co-operative Bank chair who was nicknamed the Crystal Methodist, has been banned from the financial services sector by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – five years after he presided over the lender’s near-collapse. Flowers led the bank from April 2010 until June 2013, when a £1.5bn hole in its balance sheet [...]
London salaries and job vacancies are on the up as UK salaries hit highest level in nearly two years March 6, 2018 Salaries and job vacancies are both on the rise in the capital, while advertised salaries across the UK have hit their highest level in nearly two years, according to new figures out today. In London, salaries rose by 2.7 per cent last month according to job site CV-Library, with advertised vacancies also rising by 6.7 [...]
Apple employees have been walking into doors at its fancy new HQ March 6, 2018 Watching birds fly into plate glass windows may be an occupational hazard for office workers, but at Apple’s new $5bn (£3.6bn) campus in Cupertino, the employees themselves are risking similar injuries. The San Francisco Chronicle has published a transcript of one of three 911 calls made in January after Apple employees walked into the massive, [...]
Smurfit Kappa share price rises as it rejects takeover approach from International Paper March 6, 2018 Paper and box maker Smurfit Kappa has rejected a takeover approach from a rival company which it called “unsolicited and highly opportunistic”. Shares in the company were up 18.4 per cent at 3,010p in early trading. US-based International Paper made a proposal to acquire the company, with shareholders receiving a combination of cash and a [...]
Transport secretary Chris Grayling tells train firms to improve communication after last week’s Beast from the East travel chaos March 6, 2018 The transport secretary has written to Britain’s train companies telling them the industry needs to improve customer communications after last week’s weather troubles. There was heavy disruption after the Beast from the East brought snow chaos and weather warnings for UK travel last week, with tales of passengers letting themselves off trains and others being [...]
SEO opportunity still there for PR agencies. But will they take it? March 6, 2018 Just over a year ago, I argued that the UK PR industry was missing the search engine optimisation (SEO) boat as data implied the number of agencies offering SEO services had dropped markedly. One year on, I take a look at how the market is developing. If you’re new to search marketing, how Google – [...]
DEBATE: Could Italy’s election result spell the end of the EU as we know it? March 6, 2018 Could Italy’s election result spell the end of the EU as we know it? Matthew Elliott, senior fellow at the Legatum Institute and senior political advisor to Shore Capital, says YES. Presidents Macron and Juncker have spent the past six months trying to shift the EU in a more integrationist direction, so the election of [...]
No excuses for the level of disgraceful governance revealed by the GRG crisis March 6, 2018 The Financial Conduct Authority’s report into RBS’s Global Restructuring Group (GRG) makes lamentable reading for those of us who are trying to place corporate and operational governance at the heart of institutional decision-making. That the UK’s largest bank, albeit 70 per cent owned by the taxpayer when much of the wrongdoing took place, could treat [...]