Job interview questions from some of the UK’s top accountancy firms, including PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY January 20, 2016 If yesterday's banking interview questions left you in a tizzy, maybe accountancy is more your cup of tea. City A.M. went back on careers website Glassdoor.com to find out just what calibre of questions wannabe bean counters and spreadsheet drafters could expect from their potential employers. PwC Senior accountant: If you were to be re-incarnated as an animal, [...]
KitKat’s four-finger shape cannot be a trademark says High Court in latest step in Nestle’s intellectual property battle January 20, 2016 Confectionery company Nestle suffered yet another knock today in its ongoing intellectual property battle against Cadbury after the High Court ruled that its four-finger KitKat design could not be registered as a trademark. The High Court decision follows a ruling last September from the Court of Justice of the European Union. The European court determined that, [...]
Twitter share price breaks a new record but not in a good way, falling to a new low of under $16 within an hour of the New York market opening January 20, 2016 Just when you thought the Twitter share price couldn't fall any lower, it only goes and breaks the $16 mark. After closing on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday at an all-time low of $16.69, Twitter's shares have continued to tumble today, dipping below $16 within an hour of the market opening. Shortly after 3pm London [...]
Gazprom boss Viktor Zubkov warns EU of impending gas crisis due to Brussels policy January 20, 2016 Energy giant Gazprom today warned the European Union that its energy markets could be plunged into crisis unless Brussels revises its “contradictory” energy prices. Energy companies have been forced to make deep cost cuts in order to weather the global commodity price rout which started around 18 months ago. Speaking at a conference in Vienna, [...]
TalkTalk hack: Customers flee telco firm after high-profile cyber attack January 20, 2016 Customers are fleeing TalkTalk, with the embattled telco firm’s market share dropping sharply since the high-profile data hack exposing personal data. TalkTalk has lost 4.4 percentage points of its home telecoms services market share, with its slice of the pie down to a mere nine per cent, according to market researchers Kantar Worldpanel. Over 150,000 [...]
Goldman Sachs posts third straight quarter of sliding profits January 20, 2016 Goldman Sachs reported a sharp drop in fourth-quarter profit today, after a $5bn (£3.5bn) legal settlement weighed on the investment bank's costs in the last three months of 2015. Goldman reported a 71.8 per cent fall in net income applicable to common shareholders to $574m, or $1.27 per share, from $2.03bn, or $4.38 per share, a year [...]
Pets at Home share price jumps as it shakes off flea problem January 20, 2016 Pets at Home shares have risen by five per cent in early morning trading as the retailer put a bad flea season behind it and expanded with seven new superstores across the UK. The FTSE 250 pet products and services retailer said like-for-like sales rose by 2.2 per cent in the third quarter to 31 [...]
FTSE 100 index closes in a bear market as the price of oil falls further January 20, 2016 The FTSE 100 index officially fell into a bear market on Wednesday as the price of oil continued to slide. The UK's blue-chip index fell 3.46 per cent to 5,673 points, falling over 20 per cent from the high it reached in April 2015. "Few stocks were spared today as European equity markets plunged sharply today with the FTSE 100 [...]
BHP Billiton share price falls as it announces more impairment charges and iron ore production guidance January 20, 2016 BHP Billiton languished towards the bottom of the FTSE today, after the mining giant's first half operational review laid bare the impact of plunging global commodity prices on its balance sheet. The company said it would take an additional $300m (£211.6m) to $450m in impairment charges from its first-half earnings, due to redundancies, inventory write-downs as well as royalty and taxation matters. [...]
Volkswagen emissions scandal: Why VW may not be last carmaker to rock the auto industry January 20, 2016 The week the latest twist in the ongoing Volkswagen saga emerged. Apparently none too happy with its behaviour, some UK investors will be taking action against the firm over lost earnings in the wake of the emissions fixing scandal. But VW and Renault are not the first major car firms to run into difficulties, and [...]