Why a Bank of England interest rate cut looks increasingly likely January 15, 2020 Just a week ago, investors rated the chances that the Bank of England would cut interest rates at about five per cent. Today, they think there is a 60 per cent chance that the main rate will be lowered from 0.75 per cent, according to CME Group’s tool which analyses futures prices. So what has [...]
UK box office revenue tops £1.25bn as cinemas fend off streaming giants January 15, 2020 UK cinemas pulled in more than £1.25bn last year as film fans continue to flock to the big screen despite the growing popularity of streaming services. Cinema admissions exceeded 176m in 2019 as punters were drawn in by blockbuster hits such as Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King and Joker. It marks the third consecutive year [...]
Revealed: Why the government bailed out Flybe, but not Thomas Cook January 15, 2020 At first glance, some might find it hard to understand why the government decided to save Flybe – a small, regional airline – but not holiday giant Thomas Cook. After all, when the latter went bust in September more than 150,000 Brits were left stranded abroad, prompting a mammoth repatriation effort by the Civil Aviation [...]
KKR raises $2.2bn for second next-gen technology growth fund January 15, 2020 Investment firm KKR has closed its second Next Generation Technology Growth fund at $2.2bn (£1.7bn) — over three times the size of its predecessor. The fund will be dedicated to technology growth equity investment opportunities in Europe, North America and Israel, KKR said. Read more: World’s largest hedge fund sees gold price rising 30 per [...]
Aviva Investors buys Docklands hotel site for £106m January 15, 2020 Aviva Investors’ Lime Property Fund has bought a £106m hotel development site near Canary Wharf. The asset management arm of Aviva has acquired the freehold interest in the site next to Westferry DLR station, where developer Rockwell will build a 30-storey Premier Inn Hotel. Read more: London luxury hotel market booms Whitbread, the owner of [...]
Litigation costs dent Goldman Sachs’s fourth-quarter profit January 15, 2020 Goldman Sachs suffered a fall in profit in the final quarter of the year as high litigation provisions and investment banking weakness dented the Wall Street giant’s bottom line. Net earnings fell 26 per cent year on year to $1.72bn. The fall in profit took earnings per share to $4.69 in the fourth quarter from [...]
UK ‘must not let fox into the hen house’ with Huawei decision January 15, 2020 Boris Johnson has been warned not to “let the fox into the hen house” by allowing Huawei to build the UK’s 5G network. Tom Tugendhat, who is running for reelection as chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, today said the embattled telecoms giant was “integrally” part of the Chinese state and could not be trusted. [...]
IBM takes control of TSB’s IT after digital meltdown January 15, 2020 TSB today handed control of its IT systems to tech giant IBM in a deal to overhaul its banking platforms as the bank attempts to escape the shadow of a disastrous digital meltdown. Spanish bank Banco Sabadell, which has owned TSB since 2015, hired IBM for €1bn (£856m), according to Reuters. Read more: TSB Bank [...]
Bank of America profit slips but beats expectations January 15, 2020 Bank of America’s (BoA) profit fell four per cent in today’s fourth quarter results, with the firm announcing $7bn (£5.4bn) in net income, down from $7.3bn in the same quarter last year. The small decline is due to lower interest rates squeezing the US lender’s ability to earn more from its loans. Read more: JPMorgan [...]
Labour leadership hopeful Lisa Nandy says party should have been ‘bold’ on free movement January 15, 2020 Labour should have been “bold enough to defend free movement” while the party formulated its Brexit position, leadership hopeful Lisa Nandy has said. The Wigan MP, who has been running an exhaustive series of events as part of her leadership campaign, said Labour had to “connect the local and the global”, acknowlegding that the system [...]