Countryside Properties eyes up £1bn return to the stock market September 28, 2015 Housebuilder Countryside Properties is planning to return to the stock market with a £1bn float, over 10 years since it delisted. The company was bought for £222m in 2005 by a joint venture between HBOS, now Lloyds Banking Group, and the founder Alan Cherry. It was subsequently bought by US private equity firm Oaktree Capital [...]
Debenhams set for shareholder leadership coup September 28, 2015 Debenhams is facing further shareholder unrest, with several more of its biggest investors joining broker Cenkos in its attempts to unseat the retailer’s top bosses. Milestone Resources, Schroders and Old Mutual are said to have teamed up with Cenkos, which was last week revealed to be in talks with other shareholders about possibly replacing chairman [...]
Sale of Tesco’s Clubcard business to WPP on the verge of collapse September 27, 2015 Tesco is likely to be forced to give up on the sale of its loyalty card business Dunnhumby as talks with WPP look set to collapse. The advertising agency has struggled to agree a price, according to the Sunday Times. Tesco hired Goldman Sachs earlier this year to look into selling a portion or all [...]
Soho House to raise £200m to fund expansion September 27, 2015 Soho House is trying to raise £200m in its second financing drive in two years. The group, which owns Shoreditch House and has 15 outposts around the world, including the recently opened Soho Farmhouse in Oxford, is looking to raise the funds to open six new houses and up to 30 restaurants over the next [...]
RSA prepares to make more overseas sales September 27, 2015 British insurer RSA is believed to be preparing to sell its Russian and Middle East operations in the next few months. The company has been disposing of its non-core business over the past two years, since chief executive Stephen Hester was brought on board to turn the group around. Earlier this month, the insurer sold [...]
UK wine-making industry enjoys sparkling good health and growth September 27, 2015 English wine-makers have enjoyed a vintage year, and are set to double in capacity and production over the next seven years. According to figures from the Wine and Spirit Trade Association released today, English vine-yards have grown, on average, 11 per cent a year over the last 10 years. There are currently 135 wineries producing [...]
British firms owe taxman £2.6bn worth of VAT September 27, 2015 British businesses are behind with VAT payments to HMRC to the tune of £2.6bn, due to clients not paying bills on time, according to research from finance firm LDF. It found one of the biggest causes of late payments to the government is that smaller firms are struggling to collect cash from customers, leaving them [...]
UK housing market: Property lending showing signs of rebound as banks resume financing September 27, 2015 Lending to the property sector is showing signs of recovery as the long-term decline in bank finance begins to slow, says commercial law firm EMW. In a report today, EMW says bank lending to investors in the property sector has levelled out over the past year, down just one per cent from £136.2bn in July [...]
SMEs paid out more in dividends over fears that taxes will increase September 27, 2015 The percentage of profits British small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) paid out as dividends last year rose to 63 per cent, up from 46 per cent the year before, according to accountancy firm Moore Stephens. The accountancy firm said today this was due to business owners reacting to concerns about possible tax increases following the [...]
Volkswagen warned over emissions test cheating “years ago”, German reports claim September 27, 2015 Volkswagen was warned about cheating emissions tests several years ago by the company's own staff members and by one of its suppliers, according to German media reports. The warning from internal engineers as far back as 2011 is said to have surfaced from VW's internal investigation into the scandal which has rocked the company, German [...]