GVC Holdings and Betfred place wager on 10-year online deal May 23, 2016 Gaming services provider GVC Holdings has signed a 10-year B2B licensing deal with one of the UK's leading sportsbook operators, Betfred. Betfred will migrate all its sportsbook and gaming offerings onto the GVC platform on an exclusive basis. The GVC proprietary platform offers a "one-stop-shop" online offering, which focuses on a superior sports betting player [...]
EU referendum: Former 10 Downing Street adviser and close ally of Prime Minister David Cameron Steve Hilton backs Brexit May 23, 2016 Steve Hilton, a former No 10 adviser and a close ally of the Prime Minister, says the UK must vote to leave the EU. Hilton blasted the EU as "anti-market, stifling innovation and competition with its statism, corporatism and bureaucracy", in a Daily Mail article. "These are issues that a reformed EU might address," he [...]
Sajid Javid: Brexit warnings are “not a conspiracy” – it will cost 500,000 UK jobs May 23, 2016 Leaving the European Union would cost the UK economy 500,000 jobs, a new Treasury report will say today, according to Sajid Javid. Speaking on Radio 4's The Today Programme, the business secretary warned of an "immediate and profound" economic shock in the event of a Brexit. "The Bank of England, the IMF, the OECD, the London [...]
Ryanair pledges to cut fares as it misses profit expectations following the affects of terrorist incidents and union strikes May 23, 2016 Budget airline Ryanair missed expectations in its full-year profits today as the impact of terrorist attacks on bookings and low oil prices began to take their toll. The figures Adjusted net profits came in at €1.24bn (£961m) for the 52 weeks to 31 March, a 43 per cent increase on the previous year, although this missed analysts' estimate of €1.3bn. [...]
Aegon sells £3bn annuity portfolio to Legal & General May 23, 2016 Legal & General has acquired a £3bn annuity portfolio from Aegon, as part of the latter's major review of its UK operations. The deal covers around 27,000 of in-payment policyholders, who will remain customers of Aegon until the transfer becomes effective, which is subject to regulatory and court approval. Alex Wynaendts, chief executive of Aegon, said: "I am very pleased that [...]
Some bad news for Japan, as exports stay in the red for seventh consecutive month May 23, 2016 Japan's exports were still in the red in after Ministry of Finance data released today revealed a drop of 10.1 per cent year on year in April – despite stronger growth figures. This is the seventh straight month of declines, after a strong yen and weakness in China took their toll. Exports to China, which remains Japan's [...]
City Moves for 23 May 2016 | Who’s switching jobs May 23, 2016 Together Specialist lender Together has appointed Colin Kersley to its retail board. As an independent non-executive director, Colin will also chair the retail audit committee. Colin was previously chief executive officer of M&S Bank (a wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC) where he worked closely with the independent board to convert the card company to a bank, [...]
London companies lost £16bn in 2015 due to risks within their control – KPMG Enterprise May 23, 2016 Businesses in London lost around £16bn last year due to risks within their control, according to new research out today. Firms suffered particularly from an over-reliance on a small number of suppliers and customers, which left them vulnerable to "costly fractures in their supply chain and a loss of vital revenues", according to KPMG Enterprise. [...]
Fraud with Problems: Ravelin boss Martin Sweeney talks Hailo, fake credit cards and machine learning May 23, 2016 "There’s a real tension at the heart of fraud detection: if you want to stop online fraud, just switch everything off.” Martin Sweeney is, of course, being facetious. But fraud, he impresses, has become an accepted fact of the on-demand economy. “We as consumers are accepting that most of the things we buy have a premium [...]
Barack Obama must nail down his free trade deals before the protectionist takeover May 23, 2016 Washington – A few years ago, in a predictably thorough fashion, the Chinese government commissioned a study of the documented historical cases where rising powers had challenged dominant powers for leadership of the international system. The currently-rising Chinese (who went all the way back in time to mine valuable lessons from Thucydides about Athens and [...]