UK retail sales: Online Black Friday bonanza steals limelight away from the high street December 8, 2015 High street retailers lost out in November, with sales falling into the red, as online retailers enticing shoppers with Black Friday bargains stole the show. Like-for-like retail sales fell by 0.4 per cent last month compared with November last year, when they had increased 0.9 per cent from the preceding year, according to figures released [...]
Brent crude oil prices near seven-year low after Opec decision December 7, 2015 Oil prices have hit lows not seen since the beginning of the financial crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, due to concerns the supply glut will continue into 2016. Brent crude was trading at $40.71 per barrel at the time of print, while the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dipped to lows of [...]
Douwe Egberts owner JAB Holding Company rivals Nestle market share with $13.9bn Keurig Green Mountain deal December 7, 2015 Drinks company Keurig Green Mountain has been taken private by coffee specialist Douwe Egberts owner JAB Holding Company in a deal worth $13.9bn (£9.2bn). JAB, an investment vehicle owned by Germany’s Reimann family, paid $92 per share in cash for Keurig, representing a premium of around 78 per cent over its closing price on 4 [...]
Gordon Brown appointed to Pimco advisory board alongside Ben Bernanke and Jean-Claude Trichet December 7, 2015 Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been appointed to the Global Advisory Board at investment management firm Pimco. He joins the group’s team of advisers alongside former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and former chief exec of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, as well as Anne-Marie Slaughter, president and chief exec of New America, and [...]
City Moves for 8 December 2015 | Who’s switching jobs December 7, 2015 BAKER & MCKENZIE Global law firm Baker & McKenzie has appointed Andy Moody as a partner in London. He joins in early 2016 from Eversheds. Andy has acted on a wide range of commercial disputes, focusing on international arbitration. His experience is in the energy sector where he has advised on international upstream, downstream and [...]
Uber warns EU regulations are holding back Europe’s tech startups December 7, 2015 Cab hailing app Uber has warned European Union (EU) regulation could mean that technology startups from Europe are unable to compete internationally. Uber’s head of public policy in Europe Mark McGann slammed the EU digital single market and said: “I’m concerned about domestic companies in the UK and across Europe not being able to make [...]
Wall St slides as S&P energy index dives – New York Report December 7, 2015 Oil prices slid to their lowest point in nearly seven years yesterday, pulling the S&P energy index’s down to its biggest one-day percentage drop since late August. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 117.12 points, or 0.66 per cent, to 17,730.51, the S&P 500 lost 14.62 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 2,077.07 and the [...]
Tyrie pushes for changes to inheritance tax relief reforms December 7, 2015 Proposals to extend inheritance tax relief for residential properties brought in by George Osborne this year have been criticised for being too complex. Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, has written to the chancellor asking him to rethink the proposals. He has suggested using the 2016 Finance Bill to clarify the changes, the first [...]
Euler Hermes: Brexit could knock £30bn off export sales by 2020 December 7, 2015 The cost of a Brexit on exports could hit £30bn if the UK decides to leave the EU without a new free trade agreement (FTA), according to new research released yesterday. The report from credit insurance giant Euler Hermes said Brexit without an FTA would cause a sharp contraction in the UK economy, with total [...]
Islamic State earns $80m a month from oil sales and taxes but funds may be weakening, IHS says December 7, 2015 The Islamic State collects around $80m a month from oil sales and tax on activities in areas under its control in Iraq and Syria, according new research released yesterday by IHS. The information and analytics firm said Isis relies on six main sources of revenue, with more than 50 per cent coming from tax on all [...]