Checkout.com expands to new London headquarters as revenue surges October 9, 2019 Online payments startup Checkout.com is set to hire 100 members of staff and relocate to new Old Street offices as it unveiled a sharp rise in revenue for the year. The British fintech unicorn will triple its office space with a new 63,000 square feet location near the capital’s Silicon Valley roundabout, having outgrown its [...]
Investment firm responsible for £1bn assets goes into special administration October 9, 2019 Reyker Securities, an investment management firm responsible for £1bn of assets, has entered special administration amid “financial difficulties” following a failed attempt to sell the firm. The company, which has around 15,000 clients, had been pursuing an accelerated sales process, but the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed this fell through. Read more: UK fund outflows [...]
Saving early in life – you must be joking! October 9, 2019 | City Talk As adults, we all wish we had saved and invested more, especially earlier on in life. How much easier retirement would be for most of us had we only paid in an extra few pounds a month into the retirement pot. The wisdom of age is a wonderful thing, but in reality, the young do [...]
Rising Risk (Part II): Tech bubble take two October 9, 2019 | City Talk In this second instalment of a two-part article, Sebastien Canderle says many tech start-ups are deploying a bagful of tricks to massage their numbers I have already laid out my thoughts here on CFA Institute Talk on the topic of the innovative financial engineering for which many buyout experts have become associated – for example, [...]
Why your ethical fund may not be so ethical after all October 9, 2019 The launch of an ethical investment fund used to be a far rarer occasion than it is today. Around 21 ethical funds have been launched in the UK already this year, according to exclusive figures given to City A.M. by research house FE. Compare this to 2014, when just seven ethical funds were launched all [...]
How to tackle stress like an Olympic athlete October 9, 2019 C-suite stress is the hidden ticking time bomb of business. With markets set to become even more volatile, the psychological impact on the leaders of Britain’s biggest firms cannot be underestimated. Just as we expect athletes to perform under stress, chief executives will be required to make critical decisions in the face of extreme pressure. [...]
Softbank executive suggests Wework should stay private until it can ‘demonstrate cash flow’ October 8, 2019 The tech world has been rocked by a string of disappointing or cancelled IPOs this year, as companies failed to convert huge private valuations into success on public exchanges. One Softbank executive has suggested a novel solution: firms should wait until they can demonstrate suitable levels of cash flow before listing publicly. Asked about the [...]
Two chief executives – is that one too many? October 8, 2019 Martin Gilbert’s resignation last week from Aberdeen Standard Investments may well have struck a chord with anyone who considers the “two chief executive model” ineffective. When the merger between Standard Life and Aberdeen was announced back in 2017, some were dubious about whether the co-chief exec model would work in practice – though Gilbert and [...]
World Mental Health Day: How can an app boost your wellbeing? October 8, 2019 This Thursday is World Mental Health Day. Now before you roll your eyes at yet another article discussing the importance of our mental wellbeing, it is worth remembering the massive cost of mental ill-health to society. According to the OECD, the direct and indirect costs of it – such as absences from work and decreased [...]
BP and the Royal Shakespeare Company: A drama of misplaced corporate philanthropy October 8, 2019 Last week, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) ended its eight-year sponsorship programme with BP. This was the result of a campaign led by Ella Mann, an ecology student from Oxford, who pleaded with the RSC to end the deal, saying it was clear that the arrangement was “putting a barrier” between young people and the [...]
