Biffa to announce biggest post-referendum IPO in £1bn deal September 14, 2016 Giant waste disposers Biffa are set to float on the London Stock Exchange in a deal which could value the firm at more than £1bn, according to reports. The initial public offering (IPO) could raise £300m for the firm to launch an expansion drive, Sky News reported this evening, in the biggest float for the [...]
The Amazon Echo is an artificially intelligent speaker and virtual assistant that can play music, order curries and hail an Uber September 14, 2016 The Amazon Echo is a hands-free speaker that you operate using voice commands. Inside it (well, somewhere in the cloud to be precise) lives Alexa, an artificial intelligence and essentially Amazon’s version of Siri. Alexa’s machine-learning algorithms and rapidly expanding skillset make her smarter as time goes on: so while today she can play music, [...]
US Presidential Election 2016: Would a Donald Trump presidency lead to a stronger US dollar? September 14, 2016 Currency analysts have suggested a Donald Trump presidency could cause the US dollar to strengthen. A Trump victory in November's election is expected to spook investors around the world, leading to an exodus from emerging markets and into safer assets, such as the US dollar and Japanese yen, analysts at Societe Generale and Nordic bank SEB. [...]
The chancellor faces four daunting tasks in preparing his Autumn Statement September 14, 2016 Say your prayers for the chancellor of the exchequer. Most people think David Davis and Liam Fox have a tough enough job over the coming months, but Philip Hammond also faces a daunting challenge. Consider some of the questions in his in-tray: Question One: Is the UK economy slowing down? The received wisdom is that [...]
It’s time for long-term fintech to break into pensions and mortgages September 14, 2016 Certain areas of fintech have experienced an entrepreneurial frenzy over recent years. Sectors once dominated by traditional providers have become hotbeds of startup activity, with most of the action occurring in payments, foreign exchange, short-term lending and, more recently, current accounts. As is often the case, where entrepreneurs have led, money has followed. This has [...]
Shooting the messenger: Rent controls have always and everywhere ended in failure September 14, 2016 Rent controls are back on the political agenda. Their reintroduction is now official Labour Party policy, and the Conservatives will probably follow with a somewhat milder version in due course. It is easy to see why: according to a recent Survation poll, two thirds of the public support rent controls, with most of the remaining [...]
The Green Belt is standing between young people and the homes they need September 14, 2016 Imagine a race in which the finishing line moved further away, faster than you could run. Rigged against you, no matter how hard you tried, the finish line would always move faster. That’s the housing market in London and the South East for most young people, where the dream of homeownership remains just that, a [...]
With Theresa May expected to give it the green light, is Hinkley Point just a colossal white elephant? September 14, 2016 Ruth Lea, economic adviser to the Arbuthnot Banking Group, says Yes. There is little doubt that we need more electricity generating capacity – and the sooner the better. So the government’s determination to expand capacity is welcome. But Hinkley Point is flawed. Putting aside security fears over Chinese finance behind the proposed EDF nuclear power plant, [...]
Will Yahoo ever be a verb? Exec sets out internet firm’s ambitions after Verizon takeover September 14, 2016 Yahoo is targeting the revenues of TV companies as it seeks success after its takeover by Verizon. “I do think there is opportunity to [take] budget from TV,” the internet firm’s chief revenue officer Lisa Utzschneider said. “As more and more viewers spend less time on TV and more time on their mobile devices, those [...]
We need to change perceptions of apprenticeships – especially for entry into professional jobs September 14, 2016 Barely weeks after the drama of A-level results, new university students can probably be forgiven for not interrupting the bacchanalia of Freshers’ Week to think too hard about their future careers. Yet the first term of university and independence can be a tumultuous time, and many bright young students will likely find themselves rethinking their [...]