International consortium buys up London South Bank scheme for £308m March 29, 2015 A consortium of British and international investors has bought up a £1bn office and residential development on London’s South Bank for £308m. UK’s Native Land, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek, Hotel Properties, run by the Singaporean family behind British handbag-maker Mulberry and Malaysia’s Amcorp Properties, have agreed to buy the site from Carlyle, the private [...]
Hackers force British Airways to freeze-frequent flyer accounts March 29, 2015 Tens of thousands of British Airways frequent-flyer accounts have been hacked, meaning executive club flyers will be unable to use their points. The carrier said no personal information had been viewed or stolen on the small proportion of its customers who were affected, whose accounts have now been frozen while the issue has been resolved. [...]
Apple chief executive Tim Cook plans to give most of his money to charity March 28, 2015 Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, says he wants to donate most of his personal fortune to charity before he dies. He told Fortune Magazine he plans to give away huge sums to philantropic causes, but only after he has provided for the college education of his 10-year-old nephew. A private university education in the [...]
High Court ruling on taximeters could spell the end for Uber as we know it March 28, 2015 An application by Transport for London (TfL) to the High Court could put the brakes on Uber services in London, and it all comes down to taximeters. These are the small boxes with which taxi drivers calculate the fare over the course of a journey, and the law states that in London they can only [...]
RBS confirms plans to sell Queen’s bank Coutts to Swiss Union Bancaire Privée March 27, 2015 After much fevered speculation, RBS has finally confirmed plans to sell private banking arm Coutts International – famously the Queen's bank – to the Swiss Union Bancaire Privée. RBS said under the terms of the deal, the sale comprises client relationships outside the UK – "relationships managed from Switzerland, Monaco, UAE, Qatar, Singapore and Hong Kong". [...]
Barratt chief executive Mark Clare to step down in July March 27, 2015 Barratt Developments has announced David Thomas, the group's finance director, will replace Mark Clare as chief executive from 1 July 2015. Mark Clare will step down after nine years with Barratt to focus on his non-executive career, the housebuilder said. The board decided to appoint David Thomas after a review that included external advisers. Barratt [...]
MPs tell FCA to sharpen up after insurance fiasco March 26, 2015 The City watchdog has not learned its lessons from the bungled insurance announcement which rocked insurance firms’ shares last year, an influential group of MPs said in a hard-hitting report today. Sloppy communications between the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and a newspaper led to a report that the watchdog was planning a probe into millions [...]
Lean premiums ebb earnings at Lloyd’s of London March 26, 2015 Lloyd’s of London profits dipped slightly last year after gross premiums written at the iconic institution fell. Pre-tax profits fell by £44m to £3.2bn for the year ending 2014, after premiums fell to £25.3bn from £25.6bn in the previous year. Overall profitability measures at the group also weakened, rising to a combined ratio of 88.1 [...]
Cenkos: A British banking model makes a comeback March 26, 2015 A boardroom chat between an Oxbridge-educated dealermaker who grew up on a Liverpool council estate and the former head of a scrap metal firm from Scotland is a scene only imagineable in a City of London boardroom. But the meeting between Avril Palmer-Baunack, former head of Universal Salvage, and Jim Durkin, chief executive of Cenkos [...]
British Gas owner Centrica warns political uncertainty could hit investment March 26, 2015 British Gas owner Centrica yesterday warned that the run-up to the 7 May election would have a knock-on effect on investment in the UK energy sector. “The UK market faces potential pressure in both the run-up to the UK General Election and in the policy decisions taken by the next government,” Centrica said in its [...]