Most acquisitions and divestments don’t maximise value – even when some dealmakers think they do March 27, 2019 | City Talk Most acquisitions and divestments don’t maximise value – even when some dealmakers think they do. But acquirers who prioritise value creation at the onset outperform peers by as much as 14 per cent. Cass Business School provided the market analysis for a PwC and Mergermarket study of 600 global senior corporate executives which found that [...]
Italy’s trade deal with China is playing with fire March 27, 2019 Italy’s decision to be the first major European economy to join China’s massive investment and infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative, can only exacerbate tensions between Italy and its neighbours. On Saturday, President Xi Jinping and the Italian government signed a non-binding agreement for Italy to join China’s 21st-century trade route, and inked a total [...]
Draghi says ECB ready to halt rates rises as Eurozone economy struggles March 27, 2019 Mario Draghi has said that the European Central Bank “will adopt all the monetary policy actions that are necessary” to boost the Eurozone economy should it continue to struggle, including further delaying planned interest rate hikes. Speaking in Frankfurt, Germany, the ECB boss also said that although he thought “growth will gradually return”, the “risks remain tilted [...]
London-listed Goals Soccer Centre suspends trading due to historical accounting errors March 27, 2019 London-listed football pitch operator Goals Soccer Centres has suspended trading in its shares following a “substantial misdeclaration of VAT” totalling approximately £12m. In a statement released this morning, the company – which counts Sports Direct as its biggest shareholders – said that “historical accounting errors” meant it could not be clear on its exact financial position, [...]
Looking for Brexit consensus? You won’t find it – and this Nobel-winning economist can tell you why March 27, 2019 Should pure blue sky research be funded? Certainly, the answer from government-backed research councils seems to be “no”. The emphasis is increasingly on research which has immediate practical applications. Yet seemingly esoteric research can shed light in quite unexpected areas. For example, a PhD thesis written by a then obscure research student 70 years ago [...]
Losing out: British finance bosses leaking £6.7bn a year by failing to update accounting systems March 27, 2019 Outdated accounting systems which prevent British companies taking advantage of early payment discounts are costing them £6.7bn a year, according to research. More than one-fifth of finance bosses (22 per cent) surveyed by Opinium believe their accounting software is out of date, while 16 per cent said it did not allow them to use early [...]
Thames Water unveils £1bn tech investment in bid to boost efficiency March 26, 2019 Thames Water has unveiled plans to invest £1bn in new technology for its water and waste operations in a bid to boost efficiency by 20 per cent. The investment, which will be rolled out over the next six years, will help boost the utility company’s data management for a range of issues such as fixing [...]
Prosecutors freeze £580m in Vale assets to pay back evacuated locals in Barao de Cocais March 26, 2019 Prosecutors in Brazil have frozen millions of pounds of Vale's assets to ensure it compensates residents forced to flee a dam on the verge of collapse. Authorities froze 2.95bn Brazilian reais (£576m) after families were evacuated from the path of a mining waste dam in Barao de Cocais, company filings show. Read more: Another Vale [...]
US consumer confidence falls as worries about the economy mount March 26, 2019 US consumer confidence declined in March following an increase in February, the latest data has shown, as Americans raise concerns about the economy The widely-watched consumer confidence index, released today by US business research group The Conference Board, now stands at 124.1, down from 131.4 in February. Read more: Fed slows balance sheet reduction and holds [...]
Ranked: The best-performing assets of 2019 so far March 26, 2019 US equities have been the best-performing investment in 2019 so far, with UK and global equities close behind, a new list has revealed. Government bonds have been the worst-performing asset class so far, losing four per cent of their value, despite being the best-performing in 2018. Inflation-linked and corporate bonds also gave a negative return according to a [...]