British consumers drink more sparkling wine for sixth year in a row as cava, prosecco and English wine take over December 18, 2017 Fans of prosecco, cava, and English sparkling wine have pushed up the national consumption of bubbly to the equivalent of 162 Olympic swimming pools. Sparkling wine consumption in the UK increased five per cent oveer the past year, to a total of 1.62m hectolitres, according to UHY Hacker Young. This marked the sixth successive year [...]
Eric Ries Q&A: The Startup Way author on why we should see entrepreneurship as a corporate capability December 18, 2017 Blogger and author Eric Ries is a celebrity in the startup world for his first book, The Lean Startup, which was published in 2011. Now Ries is applying the principles of entrepreneurship and his “lean” movement to traditional companies and civic institutions in his new book, The Startup Way. Advocating for a shift in the [...]
Insurance startup InsurePal to launch £15m initial coin offering December 18, 2017 Millennial-focused insurance startup InsurePal has announced it is raising £15m in an initial coin offering (ICO) to fund its UK motor launch in the first half of 2018. ICOs are a type of crowdfunding using cryptocurrencies, but they have been criticised by the Financial Conduct Authority as “very high-risk, speculative investments”. InsurePal uses the ethereum [...]
Black Friday, inflation, and leisure spending threaten retailers in make or break week before Christmas December 18, 2017 Retailers are facing a make or break week in the run-up to Christmas, as City analysts warn that a last-minute dash may not be enough to rescue a disappointing December. Dismal footfall figures seen by City A.M. reveal that visits to high streets fell year-on-year by almost 11 per cent between Sunday and Friday last [...]
Lord Adonis writes to Ofcom boss urging action plan to tackle mobile service disparity across the country December 18, 2017 The chair of the National Infrastructure Commission has written to the head of Ofcom for “urgent and radical action” to tackle the disparity in mobile services across the country. Lord Adonis said legal and regulatory changes should be considered, after figures revealed large parts of the country may not be getting the most basic services [...]
Bitcoin price (BTC) is heading for $20k as CME Group futures trading begins December 17, 2017 Bitcoin is heading towards the $20,000 mark as bitcoin futures trading is set to begin on another exchange. Futures contracts on the cryptocurrency with CME Group will begin later on Sunday which is expected to bring a greater volume of trades of a bigger size than those on the Cboe market, on which the futures [...]
Hedge funds line up against institutional investors in endgame to London Stock Exchange chairman battle December 17, 2017 The hedge fund manager attempting to oust the chairman of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has received the backing of a top-five investor ahead of a shareholder vote on Tuesday. US firm Lone Pine Capital will back the resolution of Sir Chris Hohn, manager of The Children’s Investment (TCI) fund, to remove Donald Brydon from [...]
Tax reform “just days away” says President Donald Trump as Congress scrambles to bring bill before Christmas December 17, 2017 Businesses in the US and abroad are bracing for a major upheaval in the tax system as President Donald Trump tries to rush through a vote on $1.5 trillion in tax cuts before Christmas. Trump today said Congress is “just days away” from delivering on its campaign promise. The President said he would deliver to [...]
UK Finance to PM: Canada-style trade deal is not ambitious enough December 17, 2017 The UK’s top financial lobby group has urged the Prime Minister to seek a more ambitious trade deal than a Canada-style agreement. In a letter published today, UK Finance said the Canadian deal was an “interesting template”, but it urged Theresa May to look beyond the scope of existing trade agreements. “Given the UK and [...]
England’s Justin Rose wins third title in eight weeks with commanding triumph at Indonesian Masters December 17, 2017 England’s Justin Rose continued his hot streak by romping to a third title in eight weeks at the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta on Sunday. Rose finished on 29 under par to win by eight shots from Thai teenager Phachara Khongwatmai after shooting a round of 62 for the second time. The world No6 had earlier [...]