July Budget 2015: Tottenham’s new stadium, Lenigas departures and other stories that broke while you were distracted
While offices up and down the country were tuned into the chancellor as they chomped down on his new Budget this lunchtime, a number of other companies took the opportunity to quietly slip some news under the radar that you may have missed.
The announcement of the Budget is one of the most heavily covered news stories in the financial calendar, so a number of companies used the opportunity to avoid scrutiny by posting news to the London Stock Exchange as George Osborne entertained a typically boisterous House of Commons.
Here’s everything you may have missed as you mulled over Osborne’s latest spending plans:
Lenigas steps down
David Lenigas, chairman of UK Oil and Gas Investments (UKOG), is stepping down of the oil exploration firm known as the “Gatwick gusher”.
Shares in the Aim-listed company dropped over four per cent on the news, before later recovering. Lenigas, who will remain as a consultant for at least four months, will be replaced by chief executive Stephen Sanderson.
Tottenham Hotspur detailed plans for a new stadium
Conversely, this was a story Spurs wanted to announce with as much fanfare as an American football team’s marching band. Tottenham revealed that their new stadium will have a capacity bigger than first thought at 61,000 (even more than rivals Arsenal), will host two new NFL games per season and include a “visually dramatic” new stadium design.
Transport for London Underground’s chief slammed workers planning to strike
Managing Director for London Underground Mike Brown slammed tonight and tomorrow’s Tube strike as “totally unnecessary” and warned it would cause “big disruption to the people and economy of London”.
Brown wrote in a “message to London”:
We are not asking staff to work unlimited nights and weekends. In fact, no-one is being asked to work any more hours and most staff will not be affected at all. For the majority of those who are, Night Tube will mean a few extra nights per year within their existing working week.We have recruited 137 additional train drivers to allow all night operation and reduce the impact on our existing drivers. However, in the short term we will ask some train operators to do more. After a short transitional period, train operators will have the choice whether or not to work the Night Tube shifts.
Greece promises credible reforms
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has promised his government will submit “credible reforms” when it submits its new bailout request to creditors tomorrow.
Speaking in the European Parliament, Tsipras promised that Greece would “file new concrete proposals, credible reforms, for a fair and viable solution”.
And elsewhere…
Gowin New Energy Group’s chief financial officer Irelan Tam has stepped down from her role.
Westfield shopping centre reopened after an unexploded Second World War bomb was discovered at a nearby building site earlier this morning.