China’s Singles Day 2015: Alibaba broke sales records and made £9.4bn in 24 hours November 12, 2015 Alibaba just smashed sales records for China’s Singles Day, netting £9.4bn in sales in just 24 hours. Singles Day is China’s biggest shopping holiday, and yesterday’s results broke all previous records, as the e-commerce giant revealing its sales figures showed. The company passed last year’s record-breaking revenue of £6.12bn by half day yesterday, and landed [...]
The Co-operative Bank swerves £120m fine despite being slammed by Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority for “serious and wide-ranging failings” November 12, 2015 The Co-operative Bank has been slammed by two of the UK's biggest regulators for “serious and wide-ranging failings” over its control and risk management between 2009 and 2013 – but has managed to swerve being fined. The Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that the Co-op [...]
Rolls-Royce share price tumbles as it warns profits will be at lower end of expectations after “sharply weaker” demand November 12, 2015 Shares in troubled engineer Rolls-Royce opened more than 20 per cent lower, at 528p, as it warned profits will be at the lower end of expectations in 2015, thanks to "sharply weaker " demand. After a review of operations by chief executive Warren East, the company said this morning that profit headwinds in 2016 are likely to [...]
Currency headwinds eat up SABMiller’s profits ahead of the megabrew deal with AB InBev November 12, 2015 A strong dollar took a large chunk out of SABMiller’s results, and despite strong growth in emerging markets the beer giant posted drooping profits ahead of the megabrew deal with AB InBev. The figures SABMiller posted underlying growth, with group net producer revenue growing by four per cent to $12.69bn at constant currency rates in [...]
House purchase lending jumps to seven-year for October November 12, 2015 Mortgage lending reached its highest level for the month of October in seven years, new data released today shows, as low inflation rates and rising wages helped keep consumer confidence levels high. Overall house purchase lending approvals reached 72,409 in October, up by 5.1 per cent on the previous month and 21.9 per cent ahead [...]
Megabrew is here: Now that SABMiller and AB InBev have reached a deal the real hangover begins November 11, 2015 Anheuser-Busch InBev’s £71bn takeover of SABMiller, the biggest ever British corporate merger, is poised to leave a bitter taste in the mouth with thousands of job cuts, a de-listing from the London Stock Exchange and the shuttering of SAB’s Mayfair offices all in the pipeline. AB InBev said the deal, confirmed yesterday, will result in $1.4bn (£920m) in efficiency [...]
Apple commits to Ireland expansion despite looming EU tax ruling November 11, 2015 Apple has said it is committed to its operations in Ireland regardless of the outcome of an investigation into its tax affairs. “You can tell by our announcement today, we’re all in,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook told Irish national broadcaster RTE after the company announced it was creating 1,000 new jobs in the country [...]
Apple boss Tim Cook isn’t a fan of Microsoft’s new Surface Book November 11, 2015 Apple boss Tim Cook has described the concept of Microsoft’s new Surface Book as “sort of deluded”. Collecting a gold medal award in Dublin as honorary patron of the Trinity College Philosophical Society, he engaged in a Q&A session with students where he also said: My view on the surface is very simple and straightforward. [...]
Great Portland’s first half results boosted by mammoth Facebook letting November 11, 2015 Great Portland Estates posted record beating results in the first half of the year after Facebook agreed to take all of its office space at Rathbone Square near Tottenham Court Road, in one of its biggest lettings deals to date. The West End developer made 29 new lettings in the six months to 30 September [...]
At the close: FTSE 100 closes marginally up despite losses from Sainsbury, housebuilders and miners November 11, 2015 The FTSE 100 rose marginally on Wednesday, despite by falls in Supermarkets, miners and housebuilders. The UK's top blue-chip index rose 0.35 per cent to 6,297 points. The largest casualty, by some way, was Sainsbury, which today reported profits had slumped 18 per cent and slashed its interim dividend by a third. Sainsbury's group sales were down two per [...]