The Westbury Hotel owner seeks £1bn sale of Mayfair portfolio March 10, 2020 Cola Holdings, the owner of the The Westbury Hotel, is seeking a £1bn offer for its Mayfair property estate, which also includes Bond Street’s Burberry store and a private members club. Kurdish-born millionaire Bakir Cola owns the group, which has recently received planning permission to redevelop the five-star hotel in Conduit Street to attract “top [...]
Treasury to push back target date to sell off RBS stake March 10, 2020 The Treasury is set to push back its target date for selling its stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in the wake of stock market uncertainty. The government is due to announce tomorrow that it will not divest its 62 per cent stake in RBS until 2025. An exit strategy the Treasury published [...]
Asda cuts fuel prices after oil price spirals on coronavirus March 10, 2020 Supermarket Asda has cut the price of petrol and diesel amid the Russia-Saudi Arabia oil war. The supermarket has cut its price by 2p per litre (ppl), meaning petrol will cost 114.7p per litre and diesel will cost 116.7p per litre. Asda said they are its lowest fuel prices since November 2017. “It will be [...]
Covid-19: Qantas to cut international capacity by 25 per cent due to fall in passenger demand March 10, 2020 Australian airline Qantas will cut its global capacity by a quarter over the next six months as part of a package of measures to deal with the plunge in passenger demand caused by coronavirus. In addition, Australia’s largest airline has delayed an order for 12 Airbus A350-1000 planes while the outbreak continues. Qantas will also [...]
Coronavirus: Hostel firm Safestay suffers spike in school cancellations March 10, 2020 Hostel operator Safestay has warned that it has suffered a sharp drop in bookings and a growing number of cancellations as fears over the Coronavirus outbreak ramp up across Europe. The firm said that group bookings from schools and colleges have been cancelled. Some countries including Italy have temporarily closed schools to stop the spread [...]
Coronavirus: Rory Stewart cancels London mayoral campaign launch March 10, 2020 Rory Stewart has cancelled his London mayoral campaign launch due to fears over coronavirus. Stewart yesterday criticised the government for not acting “much more aggressively” to stop the spread of Covid-19 and called for all schools to to be closed and all large public gatherings cancelled immediately. Last night, he said it was important for [...]
UK banks announce lending support for coronavirus-hit firms March 10, 2020 Some of the UK’s biggest banks have announced measures to help businesses and customers to cope with the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Britain’s largest high-street lender Lloyds said it would offer £2bn of loans without fees to small firms hit by the virus, and said some of the worst-affected businesses would be offered [...]
British Airways and Ryanair cancel all flights to Italy as travel lockdown extended to whole country March 10, 2020 British Airways (BA) and Ryanair have cancelled all of their flights to and from Italy today after the entire country was placed into travel lockdown as coronavirus continued to ravage its population. BA, which operates 60 routes to the country, had previously cancelled a raft of flights to the north of the country, but has [...]
Ultra’s profits soar after increase in defence spending at home and abroad March 10, 2020 Electronics group Ultra has posted a 113 per cent increase in profits due to new orders. Shares in the company have risen 10.81 per cent as a result to 2,112p. The FTSE 250 listed company released its results for year ending 2019 showing profit before tax had risen to £91m in 2019 from £42.6m in [...]
Your road map to the Isa universe: Make the most of your tax-free allowance March 10, 2020 There are just 27 days to go before the tax year ends on 5 April. For savers and investors, that means there are only a few weeks left to make use of their Individual Savings Account (Isa) allowance. Introduced in 1999, Isas allow people to invest up to £20,000 into savings each tax year, and [...]