Barclays thanks its shareholders for their patience and apologises for any inconvenience this turnaround period may have caused April 28, 2016 Barclays has today thanked its shareholders for being patient as the bank undergoes a turnaround period. In a statement ahead of the bank's AGM, chairman John McFarlane acknowledged that the last few years had been an "extremely difficult time for shareholders", and accepted that decision to slash the dividends for 2016 and 2017 last month would have hardly [...]
Scottish parliamentary election: Scottish National Party’s support falls but it still remains dominant ahead of Holyrood election April 28, 2016 The Scottish National Party has (quite surprisingly) witnessed a fall in support, one week before the Scottish parliamentary election. But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, nor the rest of her party, will be worrying too much, as the SNP still has a commanding lead ahead of the vote, according to the latest poll from TNS. The [...]
Discgraced former banker Elena Kotova has been ordered to hand over her Mayfair flat April 28, 2016 A former high profile Russian banker has been ordered by the court to hand over her swish flat in Mayfair to the National Crime Agency (NCA). Elena Kotova, who was an executive director of the European Bank of Reconstruction and development (EBRD), was charged with bribery by Russian authorities in 2013, alleging that she solicited more than [...]
Pour us another one: Britain’s cocktail sector continues to surge as more than three quarters of bars now offer mixed drinks April 28, 2016 If you thought you'd seen way more cocktails being ordered in the City lately, new research shows you were probably right. More than three quarters of British bars, 78 per cent, now sell the mixed drinks, with healthier and premium choices driving the flourishing cocktail market, according to the latest Mixed Drinks Report from CGA Strategy. Cocktails [...]
Gaming Realms make play for worldwide gambling machine market through agreement with Scientific Games Corporation April 28, 2016 Online gambling game creator Gaming Realms has signed a global five-year machine licensing agreement with US company Scientific Games. Scientific Games Corporation, a provider of gambling products and services to lottery and gaming organisations, will develop new slot games for traditional gaming machines, video lottery terminals and on-property handheld devices. Scientific Games will now have exclusive rights [...]
Comcast’s NBCUniversal agrees $3.8bn deal for Shrek maker Dreamworks April 28, 2016 NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, has announced a $3.8bn (£2.6bn) deal to acquire Dreamworks Animation. Shareholders of Dreamworks Animation, the maker of Shrek and Kung Fu Panda, will receive $41 in cash for each share under the deal. On Thursday morning in the US, after the announcement, the share price of Dreamworks was up 24 per cent to [...]
Samsung had the smartphone bump Apple was missing thanks to the Galaxy S7 April 28, 2016 Samsung and Apple have just demonstrated exactly how important the cycle of mobile phone production now is to their bottom line. Without the hype of a new device for Apple (the iPhone SE doesn't count), the tech giant experienced its first slowdown in more than a decade. Over at Samsung, it's a different story. Sales in the first quarter surged [...]
US GDP: Growth slows to 0.5 per cent in world’s largest economy April 28, 2016 The world's largest economy grew by 0.5 per cent in the first three months of the year, according to official statistics released this afternoon. Financial turmoil and a dramatic fall in business investment meant GDP growth in the United States came in at its slowest rate in two years and missed economists' expectations of a [...]
London mayoral election 2016: Financial traders think Zac Goldsmith’s chances are looking increasingly bleak as Sadiq Khan moves ahead April 28, 2016 With just one week to go until London elects its next mayor, Zac Goldsmith's chances of victory are looking increasingly bleak, according to financial traders. IG Group's London mayoral election barometer shows that the Conservative candidate's chances stand at just 8.5 per cent, down from 12.5 per cent last month. To be fair, since the [...]