Disney shareholders approve executive pay despite backlash March 11, 2020 Disney has fended off a shareholder revolt over executive pay after a slim majority of investors approved the company’s controversial remuneration plan. A vote on executive compensation, which included outgoing boss Bob Iger’s $47.5m (£37m) pay packet for 2019, passed with 53 per cent of votes at the media giant’s annual general meeting today. Disney [...]
Balfour Beatty confirms delay to £200m share buyback due to coronavirus March 11, 2020 Shares in construction giant Balfour Beatty jumped today, despite confirmation it has scrapped a £200m share buyback. The confirmation comes after Sky News first reported the plan yesterday. Balfour Beatty posted a net profit, although it slipped from £135m in 2018 to £133m in 2019, a drop of 1.4 per cent. This was on the [...]
Budget 2020: Sunak pledges extra £175bn to ‘get Britain building’ March 11, 2020 New chancellor Rishi Sunak pledged to “get Britain building” in today’s budget, unveiling an additional £175bn in capital investment to “level up” roads, railways, housing and broadband across the country. The extra money, which forms part of Sunak’s much trailed £640m spending package, means that by 2024 annual expenditure will rise above £110m, triple the [...]
HSBC interim chief executive’s pay set to rise to £1.3m March 11, 2020 HSBC has revealed chief executive Noel Quinn will receive a 2.5 per cent pay rise, bringing his total salary to £1.3m, while finance boss Ewen Stevenson’s salary will rise to £741k. Last month, the bank unveiled a radical strategy overhaul alongside its annual results. Under the plans, HSBC will cut 35,000 jobs over the next [...]
Costain shares crash as firm hits up investors for £100m March 11, 2020 Shares in engineering firm Costain plummeted 34 per cent today as it revealed plans to launch a £100m fund raise to bolster its balance sheet. Costain’s stock slumped to 104.8p after the announcement, which came off the back of a £6.6m loss before tax in 2019 – compared to a £40.2m profit in 2018. The [...]
Budget 2020: UK regions to get their own trade envoys March 11, 2020 New trade envoys representing the UK’s individual regions will be posted to embassies around the world. Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a swathe of measures to “level up” less well-off regions outside of London in his inaugural Budget speech yesterday. Included among them was a pledge to create “dedicated trade envoys representing the North, the Midlands, [...]
FTSE 100 sees red despite rate cut and £30bn coronavirus Budget pledge March 11, 2020 The FTSE 100 closed down 1.4 per cent today as the dual impact of interest rate cuts and new coronavirus stimulus measures failed to impress investors. London’s blue-chip index had jumped as much as 2.1 per cent earlier in the day after the Bank of England announced it would slash UK interest rates to protect [...]
2020 Budget live: City reacts to Rishi Sunak’s spending plans March 11, 2020 Welcome to City A.M.’s 2020 Budget Day live blog. Please refresh your browser for live updates. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to address fears over the economic impact of coronavirus, and announce waves of new infrastructure spending and changes on taxation in his 2020 Budget. It comes after Bank of England governor Mark Carney earlier [...]
Jet2 dodges airlines malaise as budget carrier raises profit forecast March 11, 2020 Jet2 owner Dart Group today bucked the current airlines malaise, raising its profit forecast for the second time in six months despite the pressure being exerted on the aviation industry by the coronavirus outbreak. In a trading update, the airline said that until “very recently” customer demands for its package holidays had remained “consistently strong” [...]
EXCLUSIVE: London mayor hopeful Rory Stewart pledges to fund Hammersmith Bridge repairs March 11, 2020 Rory Stewart will guarantee funding for the £95m Hammersmith Bridge repairs if elected mayor. The independent candidate today pledged to underwrite the cost of repairing the bridge in his first week in office from Transport for London’s (TfL) capital account. A bid for government funding has been lodged with the Department for Transport (DfT). However, [...]