France and Germany swoop to buy Russia’s Sputnik vaccine March 31, 2021 France and Germany held discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin last night to supply doses of the country’s Sputnik Covid vaccine as suspicions over the Astrazeneca jab continue to proliferate across the continent. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a video call with the Russian premier to discuss “co-operation” over vaccine [...]
Fuller’s seeks to shore up cash as Covid burns up to £5m each month March 31, 2021 Fuller, Smith & Turner said on Wednesday it received a conditional extension to its debt maturities from its lenders. The extension comes after the British pub operator warned that its sales would plunge by around 80 per cent for the full year to March 2021. The company also said it was raising money from the [...]
6 esports business leaders that you should follow March 31, 2021 | City Talk Esports has become a global phenomenon that has created a new class of super star celebrity and plenty of healthy competition between world-class professional esports teams. In 2019 approximately 32% of Internet users aged between 16 and 24 watched esports. Then came the lockdowns of 2020, and viewership skyrocketed. Twitch saw an increase of 17% [...]
Today final day for borrowers to apply for payment holiday on mortgages, cards and loans March 31, 2021 Borrowers have until the end of today to apply for a payment holiday on products such as mortgages, personal loans and credit cards. Eligible customers who have not taken a payment holiday before, and those who have previously had a payment deferral totalling less than six months, have until tonight to apply. Payment holidays are [...]
H&M dives into the red and rules out dividend payment March 31, 2021 Retail giant H&M reported a loss for the December-February period this morning and confirmed it will not propose a divided at its upcoming annual general meeting. However, the Stockholm-based clothing giant did not rule out a divided later in the year. The world’s second-biggest fashion retailer pre-tax loss during the fiscal first quarter was $159m, [...]
The final countdown: Are businesses prepared for the Libor transition? March 31, 2021 The countdown to the end of Libor has begun but the scale of the work involved in transitioning to the new rate is immense. For 40 years Libor has been the key benchmark for setting interest rates on various loans and contracts, underpinning trillions of dollars of transactions, before controversy hit. From today no new [...]
UK house price rises slow down in March as demand softens: Nationwide March 31, 2021 House price growth slowed down this month with prices going up by 5.7 per cent compared to March of last year, mortgage lender Nationwide said this morning. Last month, property prices rose by an annual 6.9 per cent, while house prices edged down by 0.2 per cent month-on-month in March. Across the UK, the average [...]
Topps Tiles puts in resilient performance despite lockdown closing stores March 31, 2021 Topps Tiles saw revenue grow in the first half of its 2021 financial year despite the recent coronavirus lockdown closing its stores and halting its commercial work. In the 26 weeks ending 27 March, the tile specialist saw revenues of £103.6m, down slightly from £106m during the same period in 2020. In the first [...]
UK insurers have more work to do on environmental policies March 31, 2021 Insurers in the UK have more work to do on the environmental and social aspects of ESG, though they are global leaders in governance. The UK is underperforming many of its European peers on environmental processes and reporting across a number of areas, research by Big Four consultancy firm EY has found. EY carried out [...]
Financial Ombudsman Service branded ‘unfit for purpose’ March 31, 2021 The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is “unfit for purpose” and needs “major reform”, according to a damning new report published by think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). The IEA said the FOS is “failing to delivery on its primary objectives of ‘providing fair and reasonable resolution of disputes at speed’”, the think tank [...]