Big Yellow slashes staff and turns to automation after Reeves’ business rates blow July 20, 2026 Big Yellow continued to trim its headcount and hike investment into automation in a bid to cut staff costs, as the company continues to deal with the fallout of Reeves’ decision to hike business rates. The Chancellor’s decision to increase both national insurance and minimum wage in the 2024 Autumn Budget, caused the group to [...]
London-listed healthcare services firm hit by cyberattack July 20, 2026 Shares in Craneware tumbled in early trading on Monday as the healthcare services firm revealed it had been hit by a cyberattack. The AIM-listed business said the incident involved “unauthorised access to a subset of its data environment”. Early investigations suggest “a significant volume of file names were viewed and exfiltrated”. Employee data as well [...]
As it happened: John Healey named Chancellor as Burnham shakes-up cabinet July 20, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Andy Burnham has become the UK’s newest Prime Minister, succeeding Sir Keir Starmer just two years after his landslide win at the 2024 general election. Starmer visited the King this morning to give him his resignation. In his farewell speech outside Number 10, the outgoing Prime Minister said [...]
Private equity firms eye valuation gap as City falls to takeovers July 20, 2026 The London Stock Exchange has seen a sharp uptick in takeover premiums this year as a deals spree from led by private equity firms and foreign buyers accelerates. The average price paid by acquirers relative to companies’ share prices has hit 45 per cent, according to data from AJ Bell. Foreign buyers account for 86 [...]
As it happened: Stocks rise despite IEA warning of ‘critical’ oil issue July 17, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Oil is on track to gain around 12 per cent for the week after the continued escalation of strikes between the US and Iran. Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil – is holding steady around the $85 per barrel mark after US’ multiple strike offensives against [...]
PwC slapped with multi-million fine for audit failures at FTSE 100 firm Babcock July 16, 2026 Big Four giant PwC and a former partner have been fined over £5.5m for the audit failures of London-listed engineering giant Babcock International. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) issued disciplinary action against the firm and its audit partner, John Waters, following numerous serious audit breaches during the financial years 2019 and 2020 audits of the [...]
Engineering group picked off London Stock Exchange in £4.1bn deal July 16, 2026 Rotork is set to become the latest company snapped off the London Stock Exchange by a foreign buyer after agreeing to a £4.1bn takeover by Swiss rival ABB. The engineering group agreed to pay 506p per share in cash for the FTSE 250 firm, comprising 503p in cash and a dividend of up to 3p. [...]
UK economy grows despite Iran war hit July 16, 2026 The UK economy grew marginally in May after strong performance in parts of the services sector helped soften the impact of Iran war and narrowly prevented a contraction. Fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed the economy grew 0.1 per cent in May, broadly in line with market expectations. The services [...]
As it happened: Stocks drop on Trump-Iran warning; Mahmood tipped to be chancellor July 16, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. The UK has received fresh economic growth data this morning which has put GDP expansion at a sluggish 0.1 per cent for the month of May. The services sector – which contributes more than 80 per cent of total economic output – grew 0.3 per cent against steep [...]
Pension funds pledged a private investment splurge. Three years on, has anything changed? July 15, 2026 When 11 of the UK’s largest pension providers signed a deal to pump billions into unlisted companies in July 2023, the mood at Mansion House in the City was celebratory. Then Chancellor Jeremy Hunt hailed the signing a “great personal triumph” for then Lord Mayor, Sir Nicholas Lyons. If the remainder of the UK defined [...]