Brazil to begin discussions on joining oil cartel Opec January 22, 2020 Brazil is set to begin discussions on joining oil producer cartel Opec, its energy minister announced today. Bento Albuquerque said that talks would begin during a visit to Saudi Arabia, the group’s de facto leader, in July this year. He hastened to add that Brazil would not join the group this year. Brazilian president Jair [...]
Saudi Aramco international listing still ‘on the cards’ January 22, 2020 Saudi Arabia’s finance minister has said that the kingdom is still mulling listing state oil giant Saudi Aramco on an international bourse. Speaking to Bloomberg at Davos, Mohammed Al-Jadaan said that a float is “still on the cards”. However, he added that he “didn’t think it’s going to be anytime soon.” In December Aramco listed [...]
Small business finance fintech Liberis raises £32m to boost growth plans January 22, 2020 London-based fintech Liberis has raised £32m to help fund the growth of the small business finance provider and expansion in the US and Europe. The funding raise is the first institutional equity fundraise by Liberis, which lends money to small businesses against their future debit and credit card sales, and was led by investment firm [...]
Record number of customers switch energy supplier in 2019 January 22, 2020 A record number of consumers switched household energy supplier in 2019, with almost 6.4m switches over the course of the year. As the UK market caters to roughly 30m households, that means one in every five customers changed supplier in the last 12 months. On average, there were 530,000 switches a month, with April seeing [...]
Housebuilders lead FTSE 100 bounce as coronavirus fears abate January 22, 2020 The FTSE 100 rebounded this morning following its worst performance in two weeks on Tuesday, with housebuilders leading the blue chip index after Berkeley raised its planned shareholder returns. The index gained 0.10 per cent in morning trading, led by Berkley. The company climbed as much as 5.40 per cent to hit a record high [...]
Brexit certainty helps AJ Bell boost platform assets by 27 per cent January 22, 2020 The end of the Brexit deadlock helped AJ Bell post a 27 per cent leap in its platform assets under administration (AUA), but underlying inflows for its advised platform were flat year on year at £800m. Its investment platform saw a 27 per cent jump in AUA to £47.2bn, a rise AJ Bell credited to [...]
London-based Blossom Capital launches $185m Europe-focused fund January 22, 2020 London-based venture capital firm Blossom has launched a second $185m (£142m) fund to invest in European tech startups, less than a year after its first raise. The new fund, which Blossom Capital said was “heavily oversubscribed”, will invest in European tech startups at an early stage, and takes the total raised by the company to [...]
Bank of England forms group to weigh up digital currency launch January 21, 2020 The Bank of England has teamed up with other major central banks to assess the case for launching their own digital currencies, it announced today, as a debate rages over the future of money. Threadneedle Street will work with the central banks of Canada, Japan, the Eurozone, Sweden, Switzerland and the Bank for International Settlements [...]
IG Group says future remains bright despite fall in profit January 21, 2020 Online trading firm IG Group reiterated its medium-term targets today, despite announcing a drop in operating profit. Operating profit fell to £100.1m in the six months to 30 November, from £112.5m in the same period the previous year. IG has been hit hard by a Europe-wide crackdown on risky contracts for difference trades. However, the [...]
Lekoil receives stay of execution as operator delays payment deadline January 21, 2020 Investors in embattled Lekoil, which was last week embroiled in an extraordinary saga involving a fake investment fund, could breathe a sigh of relief today the operator of the Nigerian oil field the fake loan was meant to support said it would delay the deadline of Lekoil’s payment of $9.6m for costs. Optimum, which operates [...]