Electric scooter startup Bird to go public in £1.6bn SPAC deal May 12, 2021 Bird Rides announced a merger with Switchback II Corp, a blank-cheque company, to go public in a deal that values the electric scooter company at £1.6bn. SPACs are listed companies that use the proceeds from an IPO to buy a private firm and take it public. The scooter rental company said the deal will be [...]
Cost cutting drives National Express profit growth in first quarter May 12, 2021 Cost cutting helped coach operator National Express secure profit growth in the first quarter despite fewer journeys being taken during the pandemic. The travel company said performance is improving despite ongoing Covid restrictions, with April revenue up 50 per cent compared to last year, at the height of the first lockdown. Revenue is 16 per [...]
Tui’s half year revenues drop by nearly €6bn but summer holiday bookings surged in April May 12, 2021 Travel giant Tui took in €700m in sales in the half year to 31 March, down from €6.6bn the year prior, as borders remained closed, and summer holidays looked in doubt as destinations were lockdown. Shares in Tui slumped 3.3 per cent to 413p per share this morning. However, the travel company has since seen a slight [...]
Queue must be joking: Floridians rush out to panic buy fuel despite being unaffected by pipeline problem May 11, 2021 Long queues for petrol formed in Florida today as locals rushed out to panic buy fuel, despite being largely unaffected by the Colonial Pipeline outage. For the last few days residents in Tallahassee, a city in Floria, have rushed to fill up their vehicles with petrol, causing a local shortage of fuel, news website the [...]
British Airways owner IAG boosts liquidity with €800m convertible bond May 11, 2021 British Airways owner IAG is tapping investors for €800m to strengthen its balance sheet and take advantage of the easing of restrictions this summer. The FTSE-listed company has been hit hard by the pandemic with most of its fleet grounded due to travel restrictions. It has a weekly cash burn rate of €175m meaning its [...]
London’s bosses call on Khan and Shapps to fix ‘broken’ transport system May 11, 2021 The capital’s business leaders have called on Sadiq Khan and Grant Shapps today to fix London’s ‘broken’ transport system. The top signatories included bosses of Canary Wharf, Arcadis, the ExCeL and the New West End Company, who all signed off on the joint letter to the Mayor and Transport Secretary. The letter follows months of political [...]
Ministers demand compensation from Hitachi over rail chaos May 11, 2021 The government is demanding that Hitachi coughs up a multi-million-pound passenger compensation bill after safety concerns over its trains sparked travel chaos across the UK. More than 180 high-speed Hitachi trains were taken out of service on Saturday after cracks were discovered during routine safety checks. Passengers faced a third day of disruption yesterday after [...]
Re-elected Khan already caught in the middle as RMT union threatens tube strike over Night Tube jobs May 10, 2021 The RMT union is raining on Sadiq Khan’s re-election celebrations with threats of industrial action if Transport for London doesn’t back down over scrapping Night Tube jobs and merging roles with regular Tube drivers. Transport for London, which is in a dire financial state after more than a year of Covid-19 lockdowns and remote working [...]
West Midlands Trains ‘scams’ its own staff with email promising a pandemic bonus May 10, 2021 A rail union has called out West Midlands Trains for emailing 2,500 employees with the empty promise of a pandemic bonus as part of a cybersecurity test. In the email staff were thanked for their efforts under the “huge strain” of the pandemic and that managing director, Julian Edwards, wanted to thank them with a one-off [...]
Union steps in as £360m pension row at FirstGroup escalates May 10, 2021 Union Unite has spoken out against FirstGroup’s biggest investor, which wants to see proceeds for a recent sale at First Group given to shareholders, rather than used to plug the company’s pension deficit. FirstGroup recently sold its US division First Bus for £3.3bn to EQT Infrastructure, a year after putting the business up for sale. [...]