Plus500 shareholders give Playtech takeover the green light July 16, 2015 Plus500 shareholders have given the go-ahead to Playtech's £460m acquisition of the online spreadbetter. Read more: Watchdog must give its blessing to Plus500 deal Israeli online gambling firm Playtech's offer values Plus500 at 400 pence per share, some way below the 750 pence per share trading price the Aim-listed company enjoyed before freezing thousands of investors [...]
Four key takes from the ECB’s July presser July 16, 2015 1. ECB has hiked ELA to Greece: Draghi confirmed that the European Central Bank will increase the amount of liquidity assistance available to Greek banks by €900m in one week. He said that approval of bridge financing, plus the Greek parliament's move to vote in favour of austerity rules outlined by its lenders drove the decision. [...]
Eurogroup of finance ministers confirms it will grant a three-year bailout loan to Greece as European Central Bank hikes bank liquidity assistance July 16, 2015 The Eurogroup of finance ministers today confirmed it will grant Greece a three-year bailout loan – just as European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi confirmed it will increase the amount of liquidty assistance available to banks by €900m in one week. At a press conference today, Draghi said the approval of bridge financing, plus [...]
Culture secretary John Whittingdale unveils green paper to look at future of BBC funding July 16, 2015 Culture secretary John Whittingdale has unveiled a green paper on the future of the licence fee, suggesting it could become a household levy of a subscription service in the long term. This comes as an independent review headed by David Perry QC found it should still be a criminal offence to not hold a TV [...]
Tata Steel cuts 720 jobs over UK’s “cripplingly high electricity costs”, slams government for failing to tackle rises July 16, 2015 The government has been slammed for failing to tackle “the UK's cripplingly high electricity costs,” which Tata Steel claim have left it no choice but to make 720 UK jobs redundant. Most of the jobs are being cut from its steel bar-making plant in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, which has been underperforming because of [...]
ECB holds Eurozone interest rates July 16, 2015 The European Central Bank (ECB) kept interest rates unchanged at records lows, at a meeting of its 25-member governing council today. "At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain [...]
MPs handed 10 per cent pay rise to £74,000 despite David Cameron’s objections July 16, 2015 The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has confirmed MPs’ salaries will rise from £67,060 to £74,000 – a 10 per cent pay rise. Ipsa was set up in the wake of the expenses scandal in 2009 to monitor parliamentary expenses, and is responsible for paying salaries and expenses. The salary increase was approved despite David [...]
TfL Tube strike 2015: Days lost to strike action have doubled since 2013 – but are still way down over past 30 years July 16, 2015 Nearly 800,000 working days were lost over strike disputes last year, a sharp increase on the previous year – but it was still nothing, compared with the 1970s. Just a week after unions left London at a standstill with a 24-hour tube strike over working conditions on the upcoming Night Tube, the Office for National [...]
Kingsland Road reopened after police officers talk a man down from a roof July 16, 2015 Kingsland Road has been reopened after police talked a man down from the roof of a building he had been threatening to throw himself from. Officers from the Metropolitan Police were called to the scene – a major A-road near Shoreditch – at 10:22am this morning, along with London Ambulance Service and London Fire [...]
Europe still has a problem with low inflation July 16, 2015 While consumers may be happy to see prices rising more slowly, central bankers and politicians around Europe are a little more nervous about how they are are behaving across the European Union and Eurozone. The European Union experienced annual inflation of just 0.1 per cent in June and the Eurozone only did marginally better with [...]