Kier shares fall as outsourcer swings to £35.5m loss March 20, 2019 Kier has fallen to a £35.5m loss for the second half of 2018, but said it is in a stronger position after hitting up investors for £250m in a disastrous rights issue that missed its target at the end of last year. Read more: Embattled outsourcer Kier's net debt spirals again after 'accounting error' The figures [...]
Inmarsat shares take off after private equity firms make buyout offer March 20, 2019 Shares in British satellite firm Inmarsat soared more than 16 per cent in early trading after it revealed it is in talks with two private equity firms over a buyout deal. Inmarsat last night confirmed it is in discussions with Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus, which have tabled a cash offer of $7.21 (£5.43) per [...]
Bayer shares tumble after court blames Roundup weedkiller for man’s cancer March 20, 2019 Shares in Bayer dived more than 10 per cent following a major legal setback for the multinational pharmaceutical giant. A unanimous decision from a US jury yesterday found that the German-based firm’s Roundup weed killer product was a "substantial factor" in causing a man's cancer. Read more: M&A could be the cure for the UK's threatened [...]
Ten Entertainment to target London in bowling alley expansion plan March 20, 2019 Ten Entertainment is targeting expansion within London as the bowling alley chain looks to increase its presence within city centres. The owner of the Tenpin brand is considering establishing a presence in urban areas in a move away from its traditional focus on out-of-town retail parks, chief executive Duncan Garrood told City A.M. Read more: [...]
Hermes bags profit boost as demand from Asia drives surge in sales March 20, 2019 Luxury bag maker Hermes has posted double-digit profit growth for the full year as rising demand in Asia helped boost sales across all business lines. Read more: Asos confident on full-year targets despite 'challenging' markets The figures Hermes’ net profit rose 15 per cent to €1.4bn (£1.2bn). Consolidated revenue was up 7.5 per cent to [...]
Tube delays: District Line and Circle Line hit with delays after Paddington signal failure March 20, 2019 Severe delays have hit the Circle and District lines this morning, leaving commuters to contend with travel chaos on their ways to work. Read more: Revealed: The Tube line with the worst delays A Paddington signal failure has left the District Line with severe delays between High Street Kensington and Edgware Road this morning. While [...]
For once, John Bercow’s egomaniac meddling actually has a point March 20, 2019 John Bercow is a pompous, smug, self-important showman. The only thing he likes more than the sound of his own voice is being in the limelight – and he isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers in his never-ending search for it. He has turned the centuries-old office of the speaker of the House of Commons into [...]
Can Beto O’Rourke lead the Democrats to victory against Donald Trump? March 20, 2019 Beto O’Rourke lit up the 2020 US presidential election race last week by throwing his hat into the ring. The Democrat shot to fame last year when he ran for the US Senate and only narrowly lost out to his rival in the deeply Republican state of Texas. His failure in that election was counter-intuitively his [...]
DEBATE: Will the UK’s strong employment landscape be able to withstand the shock of a no-deal Brexit? March 20, 2019 Will the UK’s strong employment landscape be able to withstand the shock of a no-deal Brexit? Lee Biggins, founder and chief executive of CV-Library, says YES. While there’s no guarantee that the jobs boom will last if we came crashing out of the EU, the labour market has stood strong in the face of uncertainty [...]
Emojis are a better metric for national wellbeing than traditional data methods March 20, 2019 HMRC’s programme to make tax digital continues to roll out. Anyone with a small business will know about the imminent deadline of 1 April, when VAT returns become digital. Quick to seize an opportunity, several companies have developed software to ease the task. The digitisation of tax raises the wider issue of whether technology will [...]