Property firm LMSL teams up with crowdfunding platform to launch £9m east London bond September 8, 2015 A property investor is offering small retail investors the chance to buy a slice of east London property after launching a £9m mini-bond via crowdfunding platform CrowdBnk. LMSL Group, which owns 160 rental properties in east London worth around £52m, said it aims to raise at least £9m to plough back into the ongoing regeneration [...]
UK pensions deficits: FTSE 100 firms fear pension pain as workers retire September 6, 2015 Pension schemes represent a “material risk” for many of the largest companies in the FTSE 100, new research shows. Six firms, including BAE Systems, British Airways-owner International Airlines Group, RSA and Royal Bank of Scotland, all have total disclosed pension liabilities almost double their equity market value, so says JLT Employee Benefits’ quarterly report [...]
Absolute power: Africa, opera and Oktoberfest with Entrade founder Julien Uhlig September 6, 2015 When I meet Julien Uhlig, he’s in the middle of liaising with the Globe Theatre. They used to have a poster of him from when he sung at the opening of the theatre in 1997, he explains. While in London, he’s keen to get hold of it, if they’ve “still got it lying around”. [...]
How to do a private sale of your business – Investec Comment September 6, 2015 When it comes to selling a business, one size certainly does not fit all. This is particularly true in a private sale and for medium-sized companies, which tend to be tightly staffed. Where there is a wall of cash waiting to invest in growing companies, it is easy to be tempted into a “spray [...]
The Baubax travel jacket just became the most funded piece of clothing on Kickstarter ever September 4, 2015 Crowded, uncomfortable and full of strangers you have to make awkward eye contact with – and when it’s not uncomfortably hot it’s bitingly cold. Yep, the daily commute is full of discomforts. And let’s not even talk about air travel… It’s no surprise, then, that the internet has welcomed the Baubax jacket Kickstarter campaign with [...]
How to upskill yourself: New trends like P2P learning make personal development far easier September 4, 2015 It's September. Fresh-faced graduates are buying their first suits, working out their daily commute and learning how to use the coffee machine. Insecurities start to set in: what do they have that you don’t? Will they get one comprehensive training session after the other while you’re stuck in the same daily routine? Or [...]
UK governemt and Bank of England are investing in a secret stash of fine art treasures worth billions September 4, 2015 While Brits have been tightening their purse strings since the credit crunch, an investigation by the TaxPayers’ Alliance has found that the government is putting those savings to good use – investing vast amounts of money in paintings and sculptures closed off to the public. The government currently owns £3.5bn in historic art, but according [...]
Wisdom of the crowd? Here are six reasons crowdsourcing is riskier than you think September 3, 2015 An old concept, given new life by instant communication via the internet, crowdsourcing is being used in business in more and more diverse ways. The term itself was coined in a 2006 article by Jeff Howe for Wired magazine, and refers to the process of obtaining services, content or ideas from a large group [...]
IPPR: Investing in the North of England could lead to Victorian-style growth – but without it, it will be “condemned to mediocrity” September 3, 2015 The economy of the North of England could grow at a scale "not seen since the Victorian era of municipal development", a new report has suggested – but without the investment it needs, the region will be "condemned to mediocrity". The report, by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) North, showed the "massive potential" [...]
P2P investment: Taking on the banks September 3, 2015 Harriet Green talks to GLI Finance’s Louise Beaumont on how alternative finance is changing the landscape of fundraising for SMEs – and options for retail investors THERE is a sector of alternative finance which too often slips under the radar: the investment firms that put money onto crowdfunding and peer-to-peer platforms which then lend that [...]
