South African private equity firm Brait in £1.3bn Virgin Active takeover April 16, 2015 High end gym chain Virgin Active was yesterday sold to a South African private equity outfit, scuppering longstanding plans by the company to float on the stock market. Brait, a private equity firm based in Johannesburg, will take an 80 per cent controlling stake in the group, which has 1.3m members and 267 clubs. [...]
Beyond the frontier: Emerging Crowd founders take crowdfunding to emerging markets April 15, 2015 Next week, a new crowdfunding platform is set to launch: Emerging Crowd. In the industry, it’s a first – because it will give retail investors in the UK the opportunity to directly buy shares and bonds in emerging market SMEs. At the same time, it will be the first time that emerging market entrepreneurs will [...]
“Uber for marijuana” startup raises $75m from Snoop Dogg and other investors April 15, 2015 A marijuana delivery start-up has raised $10m (£6.8m) in a funding round which included investments from Snoop Dogg's Casa Verde Capital and Silicon Valley firm DCM Ventures among others. Eaze, which has been dubbed the "Uber for weed", does not directly supply marijuana, but instead connects California medical marijuana card-carriers with local dispensaries, claiming it can [...]
From flights to philanthropy: Ebookers founder Dinesh Dhamija talks luck, Romania and why Britain’s entrepreneurs shouldn’t be too bothered about the General Election April 12, 2015 We often hear that the startup landscape of today lacks funding opportunities: the banks still aren’t lending to small businesses, and despite pockets of cash existing, unless you’ve got the inside track, it’s difficult to know how to access them. But Dinesh Dhamija, the multi-millionaire son of an Indian diplomat who, in 1999, founded online [...]
Investec Comment: How cheap oil is boosting small businesses April 12, 2015 THE extraordinary decline in the price of oil has been one of the most important economic stories of the past year. Brent Crude fell from over $110 per barrel in June 2014 to below $50 in January 2015, slumping to multi-year lows. Prices have increased marginally since then, but with factors like the interim deal [...]
Gimme 5 April 12, 2015 …BLOGS FOR ENTREPRENEURS Richard Branson’s blog The business heavyweight shares his expertise on everything from how to write a complaint letter to why a three-day week could work. He’s happy to share personal stories and ways of working, to help you on your way. www.virgin.com/richard-branson The Entreprenurial Mind This is the blogging home of Jeff [...]
IFS slam Labour and Tory plans targetting pension tax relief as “damaging and counterproductive” April 12, 2015 Tory and Labour plans to cut pension relief for top earners have come under fire from the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). Director of the IFS, Paul Johnson warned that even though both sets of policies apply to a relatively small number of people they nevertheless could prove to be "complex, damaging and counter-productive". [...]
Pensioners keen to take control of retirement plans, survey finds April 9, 2015 Fears that pensioners would fritter away their savings on luxury purchases have not been borne out since the rules surrounding pensions were changed at the beginning of this week. The reforms have granted savers new freedoms, allowing them to access their pension pots for the first time, and just one per cent of 50-75 year [...]
In the FinTech family: How crowdfunding is propelling peer-to-peer platform Assetz Capital forward April 8, 2015 Back in 2010, it became clear to the co-founders of Assetz Capital that the banking system was broken. So we set out to make a difference – not just to help restart business lending, but to make a long-lasting change for the better. The desire to develop a platform where businesses could access much-needed funds, [...]
Banks to make buy-to-let mortgage rules simpler in bid to boost transparency April 7, 2015 Dozens of banks and building societies promised to make the small print on buy-to-let (BTL) mortgages simpler and clearer, in a bid to make the products as transparent and straightforward as more heavily regulated retail mortgages. The aim is to make borrowers’ obligations clearer, so that BTL customers understand how much they have to pay [...]
