Banking on beds pays off for Ikea UK as annual sales rise to £1.6bn and market share grows to 7.7 per cent November 24, 2015 Retailer Ikea has remained popular on British shores, with Ikea UK today revealing annual sales of £1.6bn for the financial year ended 31 August 2015, up 11 per cent. “We are delighted to have achieved double digit growth for the second year running and to be in our fourth consecutive year of growth here in [...]
Deliveroo: Restaurant home delivery app raises $100m investment from DST Global and Greenoaks Capital as it looks to expand in Asia and Australia November 24, 2015 Deliveroo, the app which delivers meals from restaurants to your door, has raised $100m (£66m) to fund further expansion. Deliveroo today launches in Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney, thanks to $70m raised during the summer. It only launched internationally in April with locations in Paris and Berlin. This latest funding round, a series D investment, was [...]
Tech unicorns face fresh bubble fear November 24, 2015 Traders are piling up short interest on early stage technology firms after a string of young companies made market-busting initial public offerings (IPOs). The so-called “unicorns” – companies which are valued at $1bn before they have launched onto the stock market – are being targeted by traders betting their share prices will fall. Although they [...]
City Moves for 24 November 2015 | Who’s switching jobs November 23, 2015 OCTOPUS INVESTMENTS The fund manager has appointed Tim Lambert as strategic partnerships manager, with an initial focus on the affordable housing sector. He joins from Parallel Capital, which he founded in 2011. Lambert has also worked as head of consulting at Ducalian, and has held roles at Citywise and Akiko. JP MORGAN ASSET MANAGEMENT The [...]
Carl Icahn just bought a seven per cent stake in Xerox, sending the struggling printer company’s share price soaring November 23, 2015 Carl Icahn just bought a seven per cent stake in Xerox, the billionaire investor revealed late this evening. Xerox shares leapt over 10 per cent on the news that Icahn had bought 8.2m Xerox shares for $86.5m, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Calling the shares “undervalued”, Icahn said in [...]
Pfizer buys Allergan but deal fails to excite Wall Street – New York Report November 23, 2015 New York investors yesterday appeared largely unemotive by a mega deal between Botox-maker Allergan and Viagra producer Pfizer. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 31.13 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 17,792.68, the S&P 500 lost 2.58 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 2,086.59 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.44 points, or 0.05 per cent, [...]
Biffa in secret sell off talks: Waste management firm to go on sale for £1bn? November 23, 2015 Waste management firm Biffa is has been courting prospective buyers, giving itself a price tag of £1bn, Sky News has reported. The company is this morning set to report its half-year earnings, reportedly up by 19 per cent to £67.2m, with full-year profit expectations revised upward to £119m. Biffa is rumoured to have asked any [...]
House of Lords select committee questions Google over attitude towards competition November 23, 2015 Representatives from Google were questioned today by a House of Lords select committee, including about whether the technology giant’s search engine market prominence gave it an unfair level of control over the access of online content. Adam Cohen, head of competition and economy policy for EMEA at Google, and Jon Steinberg, external relations manager, EMEA, were giving [...]
Parabis Group administrators appointed, as business broken up and sold on November 23, 2015 AlixPartners has today revealed that three of its directors have been appointed joint administrators for legal services provider Parabis Group. Peter Saville, one of the administrators, said: “Despite the receipt of further support from its financial stakeholders, the Group was unable to resolve its cash flow issues and sought to market itself for sale. As [...]
John Lewis, Amazon & Lush: UK shoppers’ favourite retailers revealed as Black Friday 2015 draws near November 23, 2015 Amazon, John Lewis and Lush are UK shoppers’ favourite retailers, according to a new ranking showing that customer service has beat out price to become our top priority when shopping. Amazon held the top spot in the hearts of the 10,000 shoppers surveyed by OC&C for its annual Retail Propositions Index, with an approval rating [...]