Competition regulator launches probe into Comparethemarket home insurance pricing September 26, 2017 Britain’s competition watchdog has launched an investigation into price comparison website Comparethemarket over allegedly unfairly priced home insurance deals. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) revealed details of the probe as part of its findings following a year-long in-depth investigation into online comparison websites. Watchdog concerns centre on “most favoured nation clauses”, exclusive deals agreed [...]
World’s largest uncut diamond sale: Lucara’s Lesedi La Rona sold to Graff Diamonds for $53m September 26, 2017 The biggest gem-quality rough diamond found in more than a century has been sold to jeweller Laurence Graff for $53m (£39m). The Lesedi La Rona, the world’s most valuable rough diamond, weighs a record-breaking 1,109 carats and is about the size of a tennis ball. It was unearthed by Canadian miner Lucara Diamond Corp nearly [...]
UK mortgage lending is (almost) at its highest level since April 2008 September 26, 2017 Mortgage lending rose to its second highest level since April 2008 in August, new figures have shown. The figures, by UK Finance, showed total gross lending rose to £24.2bn in August, up 6.4 per cent from last month. The figure is the highest since March 2016, when an impending hike to stamp duty on buy [...]
Van hire firm Northgate sacks chief finance officer Paddy Gallagher after assault conviction September 26, 2017 Northgate announced today it had sacked its chief finance officer Paddy Gallagher after he was convicted for common assault. In a statement today, the van rental firm said Gallagher had been “summarily dismissed due to his conviction for the summary offence of common assault”. Read more: Northgate races forward with 22 per cent pre-tax profit [...]
Cenkos share price leaps: Broker bonuses rocket as Eddie Stobart float provides foundations to wheelie good 2017 September 26, 2017 Brokers at Cenkos are set for bumper bonuses after the firm today revealed earnings had rocketed in the first half of 2017. Sales almost doubled and earnings per share were up over 400 per cent. Shares in the firm leapt in early trading and are currently up over 10 per cent. Coffers at the broker [...]
Donald Trump’s North Korea “war” tweets are in the public interest, says Twitter, and won’t be removed September 26, 2017 They may have caused a secretive nation with potential nuclear weapons to think there had been a declaration of war, but comments made by Donald Trump about North Korea will remain on Twitter. The tech company has defended the President’s provocative tweets as being in the public interest, despite North Korea’s foreign minister calling them [...]
The AA share price falls despite the firm appointing Simon Breakwell as chief executive after departure of chairman Bob Mackenzie | City A.M. September 26, 2017 Shares in the AA dropped over eight per cent this morning, despite the firm announcing the appointment of a new permanent chief executive after the tense departure of executive chairman Bob Mackenzie in August. Shares dropped more than eight per cent at the time of writing to 153.80p, as the firm also said today that [...]
London house prices won’t start rising until after Brexit, according to experts September 26, 2017 Prime house prices in the capital will not begin to rise until after Brexit, analysis by upmarket estate agent Savills has suggested. House prices in prime central London will fall 3.2 per cent this year and stay flat next year, before climbing two per cent in 2019, according to Savills’ five-year forecast. Meanwhile, sellers across [...]
Report finds Labour responsible for three-fifths of online anti-Semitism, as tensions surface ahead of conference vote September 26, 2017 Labour has been accused of having the worst record on anti-Semitism of any political party in the UK, ahead of a vote to determine whether members should be expelled for holding such views. The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAA) has this morning published an independent analysis of four million social media posts which contained anti-Semitic content. [...]
Hard Brexit will cost the European Union twice as many jobs as UK, say researchers from University of Leuven September 26, 2017 A hard Brexit could cause twice as many job losses in the EU as in the UK, economists based in Brussels have warned. Up to 1.2m jobs could be lost in the European Union, with up to 526,000 being lost in the UK, researchers from the University of Leuven. More than 42,000 jobs could be [...]