Law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner in talks to merge with US’s Bryan Cave October 16, 2017 City law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) revealed this afternoon that it is in talks to merge with Missouri-headquartered Bryan Cave. The deal would create a global law firm with 32 offices in 12 countries, and a platform of 1,500 lawyers. It would boast one of the world’s most active global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) [...]
Neil Woodford ups Provident Financial backing: Star fund manager doubles-down in multi-million-pound trade October 16, 2017 Star fund manager Woodford has rushed to the support of Provident Financial, buying a fresh multi-million-pound stake in the troubled doorstep lender. Woodford, which previously owned just under a fifth of Provident’s shares, snapped up a further one per cent of the firm on Friday, according to an after-hours regulatory filing released this evening. Depending [...]
Autumn Budget 2017: Treasury understood not to be planning “radical” Budget October 16, 2017 Chancellor Philip Hammond might be coming under pressure to unveil a “radical” – and vote-winning – Budget, but anyone expecting “big, bold” announcements could yet be disappointed. Hammond, who has in the past said “fiscal” is the best word to describe him, is currently canvassing the opinion of hundreds of MPs and other groups, sifting through thousands of submissions [...]
London property prices: Office sales smash through £13bn barrier after German investment boost October 16, 2017 A surge in investment from German and UK property firms has pushed London office transactions past the £13bn barrier. Buyers from 27 different countries are active in the central London office investment market, estate agent Savills said today. There have been £13.4bn of office transactions so far this year, some 23 per cent than 2016 [...]
IBM launches blockchain offering to consolidate cross-border payments October 16, 2017 Tech giant IBM today announced a new blockchain network to allow banks to better process cross-border payments. The technology will enable financial institutions to clear and settle payment transactions on a single network almost instantaneously. IBM said its “solution” will reduce the settlement time and lower the cost of completing global payments for businesses and [...]
Panel of impact investing leaders recommend new £2bn UK fund and ‘pensions with purpose’ to boost businesses which benefit the country October 16, 2017 A panel of public and private sector leaders, including former Labour MP Hazel Blears and the heads of Hermes Investment Management and auditor Grant Thornton, have today released a series of recommendations on using investment to tackle social and environmental challenges in the UK. The National Advisory Board on Impact Investing (NAB) has called on [...]
Draper Esprit will put up to £75m in leading tech seed funds, starting with Transferwise backer Seedcamp and Zoopla investor Episode1 October 16, 2017 Listed venture capital firm Draper Esprit announced today that it will put up to £75m over the next five years in some of Europe’s top tech seed funds. It has already invested in crowdfunding companies Crowdcube and Seedrs, and today announced it would be writing cheques for the latest funds of Transferwise backer Seedcamp and [...]
Ethereum just had a hard fork and ether prices are rising – here’s what happened and why October 16, 2017 Early this morning, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation completed a so-called hard fork. Even if investors were paying attention to bitcoin back in August when it was rocked by its very own hard fork, questions are likely emerging about what all of this means for ethereum and its ether token. Will a new token [...]
No more late rent: Livingbridge invests in social housing software business Mobysoft October 16, 2017 Predictive software business Mobysoft, which aims to help social housing landlords predict which tenants will be late to pay rent, has nabbed investment from private equity firm Livingbridge. The firm has invested from its £220m Enterprise 2 fund, which generally writes cheques of £5m to £15m for high-growth smaller companies in the UK. Mobysoft’s RentSense [...]
The Golden Age of newspapers approaches October 16, 2017 It has never been a more challenging or exciting time for the advertising industry. Daily discussion surrounds technology’s influence on consumer behaviour, brand safety, ad fraud, content quality and viewability. We continuously hear about Google and Facebook and the strength of targeted online advertising. So much for digital issues, but what of the newspaper? We [...]