Bank lending to property developers halves in just two years to £16bn March 21, 2016 Bank lending to property developers has halved over the last two years, making it more difficult for companies to kick-start schemes that could help ease the housing crisis, a new report out today claims. Bank finance has dropped from £34bn in January 2014 to just £16bn the same month this year – with bridging finance [...]
City financier Edi Truell to step down from board of Tungsten March 20, 2016 Venture capitalist Edi Truell is due to step down from the board of e-invoicing group Tungsten Corporation, after offering to buy its assets. Truell will relinquish his role as vice-chairman, having informed the Aim-listed group's board that he wants to take the company private, City A.M. understands. It's expected to be announced in a statement to the London Stock Exchange tomorrow, as was first reported [...]
Sandwich chain Eat foots £3.6m VAT bill after toasties get grilled in pasty tax battle March 20, 2016 High street sandwich chain Eat found itself picking up a rather expensive VAT bill last year after toasties lost out in the long-running pasty tax row. In 2014, franchisees of rival chain Subway lost a Court of Appeal battle with the Treasury to force it to drop the 20 per cent VAT rate on toasted [...]
FTSE 100 falters but ends the week higher as Sports Direct and Standard Chartered share prices rise but Sainsbury’s falls March 18, 2016 The FTSE 100 index closed lower on Friday, but concluded the week higher. The index closed 0.19 per cent lower at 6,189 points. The fall comes despite a senior European Central Bank policymaker having hinted at another cut in Eurozone interest rates and having said “helicopter money” was part of the bank’s policy toolbox, said Jasper Lawler, markets analyst at [...]
Berkeley Group share price falls as it reports prime slowdown and questions government response to housing crisis March 18, 2016 Berkeley Group has questioned the government's response to the housing crisis, saying that it will struggle to ease the growing gap between supply and demand. "We welcome government's intentions to address the persistent and acute imbalance between housing supply and demand but are concerned that supply may not respond positively due a number of inter-related factors," it said [...]
Trading transparency regulation Mifid ii facing further setbacks after EU Commission calls for revisions March 17, 2016 There’s been another setback for the controversial securities market reform regulation known as Mifid ii. Following a year long delay announced in February, the European Commission has now asked the EU's European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to take another look at rules intended to flesh out reforms. Banks and asset managers have called for [...]
FTSE 100 opens higher as Brent crude oil price rallies March 17, 2016 Markets opened cautiously higher this morning, as investors cheered a decision by the Federal Reserve's Open Markets Committee to hold interest rates – and oil rallied. The FTSE 100 crept up 0.62 per cent, to 6,212 points, pushed up by miners again. Anglo American jumped 9.8 per cent to 541.1p, while Glencore rose 7.6 per cent to 155.4p [...]
Ted Baker raises dividend 18.6 per cent as profits jump 20 per cent March 17, 2016 The figures: Group revenue rose 17.7 per cent to £456.2m in the 52 weeks ended 30 January, up from £387.6m a year earlier. Pre-tax profit jumped 20.3 per cent to £58.7m during this period, up from £48.8m in the year to January 2015. This was helped by e-commerce sales which swelled 45.8 per cent to £53.5m, up from £36.7m. The board hiked Ted Baker's [...]
FTSE 100 edges up ahead of Budget and Fed meeting – but pound falls for the third day in a row March 16, 2016 Calloo, callay, it's Budget day – but equities investors kicked the day's trading off on a cautious note, ahead of George Osborne's big reveal, as well as a crucial meeting of the Federal Reserve later today. The FTSE 100 edged up 0.4 per cent to 6,166 points in early trading, pushed up by miners including [...]
Smiths Group share price falls as first half profit drops as oil rout bites March 16, 2016 Smith Group's total profit was dragged down by a drop in its energy services division. The figures: Engineer Smiths Group's headline revenue fell three per cent to £1.4bn in the six months ended 31 January, down from £1.4bn a year earlier, but in line with expectations. The FTSE 100-listed firm's pre-tax profit shrank nine per [...]