Ukip beats the opposition to be UK’s most popular political party January 19, 2014 UKIP leader Nigel Farage is the second most popular political party leader, with Ukip the most popular political party, according to a ComRes poll released yesterday. Over 22 per cent of voters polled picked Farage as their favourite leader, behind David Cameron’s 27 per cent. Some 27 per cent picked Ukip as their favourite party, [...]
Boris hits out at airport snub January 19, 2014 BORIS Johnson has reportedly made a fresh attack on the methods of the government’s airports commission. The Mayor of London called the commission’s decision-making process “gloopy, tangled and quite labyrinthine,” according to the Sunday Times. The commission, led by Sir Howard Davies, last week invited further comments on a new airport in the Thames Estuary, [...]
UBS outsources trading platform January 19, 2014 SWISS bank UBS will begin outsourcing its fixed income trading platform to two technology groups in an attempt to save costs, a source has claimed. UBS declined to comment. French trading software firm Murex and Ion Trading have been finalised to handle bookings and electronic exchange gateways, the source said. Murex and Ion Trading could [...]
Another activist hedgie hovers over Morrisons January 19, 2014 BILLIONAIRE hedge fund boss Tom Sandell has revealed a small stake in beleaguered supermarket Morrisons, the latest activist investor to pursue an investment in the struggling chain. Sandell, who runs Sandell Asset Management, owns a tiny proportion of the firm’s shares, thought to be well below the three per cent threshold required for public disclosure. [...]
Mothercare is said to be in the sights of retailing giant Tesco January 19, 2014 TESCO considered a bid for mother and baby products retailer Mothercare to help reinvigorate its supermarkets, the Sunday Times reported. Citing retail sources, the newspaper said Tesco examined a bid six months ago but has put the plan on hold. However, the recent fall in Mothercare’s share price could rekindle Tesco’s plan according to the [...]
Data storage firm Dropbox gets $10bn valuation in funding round January 19, 2014 DROPBOX, the online storage service, has secured $250m (£152.4m) from a fund managed by BlackRock and other investors in a funding round that has valued the business at almost $10bn. The firm’s valuation has climbed alongside demand for online storage. It was last valued at about $4bn after a 2011 funding round. Previous investors in [...]
Ocado eyes locations for third warehouse January 19, 2014 ONLINE grocer Ocado is understood to be searching for a third giant warehouse to increase its capacity for grocery deliveries. Morrisons bought the rights to half of its capacity at its Dordon fulfilment centre as part of the £216m tie-up last year. Ocado has suggested since that as a result it may have to look [...]
Energy customer satisfaction falls to all-time low January 19, 2014 ENERGY customers’ satisfaction has plummeted to an all-time low, with the big six suppliers performing the worst, according to new research. An annual survey from consumer group Which? showed that the overall customer rating for energy companies has dropped to 41 per cent from 49 per cent last year. Npower scored the lowest for the [...]
Sophos refinancing includes a euro loan to satisfy demand January 19, 2014 COMPUTER security company Sophos, owned by private equity giant Apax Partners, has carved out a quarter of a $400m (£243.6m) loan for syndication in euros due to increased demand from investors. The Oxford-based business, which offers anti-spyware and anti-virus software to businesses and consumers, refinanced its debt pile through the $400m seven-year loan marketed by [...]
Disclosure rules push up fraud cases in finance January 19, 2014 TIGHTER regulations have led to a spike in reported fraud in financial services firms and in money laundering, research out today claimed. Overall reported fraud fell from £1.37bn in 2012 to £1.05bn last year, marking the second consecutive year of falling total values. However, the figures are likely to underestimate the overall level of fraudulent [...]