London house prices: Top-end property sales crushed by stamp duty increase April 13, 2015 Higher taxes have stomped on the prime London property market, forcing the number of sales to dive by one-third, commercial real estate firm DTZ said yesterday. Changes to stamp duty in December’s Autumn Statement mean that homes worth below £1m received a tax cut, but those at the very top end of the price scale have [...]
JP Morgan promotes London bosses Viswas Raghavan and Emilio Saracho April 13, 2015 A pair of JP Morgan’s top bankers in London were promoted to bigger global roles yesterday, indicating the sustained success of the Canary Wharf office. Emilio Saracho has been deputy chief executive of the corporate and investment bank (CIB) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for two years, and is being promoted to become one [...]
Morrisons’ group trading director Casper Meijer joins mass exodus April 13, 2015 Morrisons’ trading director Casper Meijer has become the latest high profile executive to leave the troubled retailer as part of an ongoing shake-up under new chief executive David Potts. The former Tesco director has sacked over half of Morrisons senior management team since taking over in March as he tries to turn around the troubled [...]
Danish competition guru Margrethe Vestager set to go into battle with Google April 13, 2015 EU official Margrethe Vestager is tipped to lay charges against the internet giant as soon as tomorrow. As a company, Google’s name is so synonymous with searching that it is frequently used as a verb. In other areas the technology giant may not always have been so well-known. But that, say its detractors, has never [...]
Shell winds down UK retail sites as it sells off 185 service stations April 13, 2015 Shell has continued to downscale its European retail operations after announcing its intention to sell off 185 UK service stations yesterday. The announcement by the Anglo‐Dutch oil giant, which last week launched a £47bn bid for BG, comes after the firm made similar divestments in Italy, Germany and Norway last year. The sell-off will involve [...]
Utopia Village: Market Tech’s £44m Camden project to lure entrepreneurs April 13, 2015 The gentrification of the iconic Camden Market precinct shows no sign of slowing as Market Tech pumped £44m into acquiring the Utopia Village office scheme yesterday. The firm hopes to use the area’s rough-around-the-edges appeal to attract entrepreneurs. Located in Chalcot Road, the property sits close to the market entrance, and the new owner hopes [...]
Top companies now firing fewer chief executives as share of female bosses edges up April 13, 2015 The biggest firms in the world are opting to plan for their bosses’ successions rather than firing them in a panic, a new report has claimed. According to research from PwC consultancy Strategy&, when firms perform poorly and fire the chief executive, the uncertainty unleashed by the change at the top can lead to a [...]
The Ukraine crisis has cost Russian banks $5bn – that’s 25 per cent of their revenues April 13, 2015 The Ukraine crisis has hit Russian banks to the tune of somewhere between $4bn and $5bn, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's reckons. That's between a fifth and a quarter of their total operating revenues. It's hardly surprising that the crisis has cost lenders money – but what is surprising is that S&P believes there [...]
Deloitte fine over MG Rover case reduced to £3m after appeal tribunal April 13, 2015 Deloitte has been fined £3m by a City watchdog over failures in the lead-up to the collapse of MG Rover a decade ago. The penalty is a significant reduction on an initial fine imposed last year, following an appeal by Deloitte and former partner at the firm Maghsoud Einollahi, the advisers who worked on MG Rover's sale [...]
UK Oil and Gas Investments share price falls as it seals Markswell Wood license deal for more Weald Basin oil fields after Horse Hill discovery near Gatwick April 13, 2015 The company behind the discovery of huge amounts of oil at Horse Hill near Gatwick has sealed a deal to increase its interests in the area in the south of England dubbed "Britain's Dallas". Shares in UK Oil and Gas Investments (UKOG) fell as much as 6.4 per cent to 2.07p in mid-morning trading, after it [...]