Amazon’s sales jumped in the last quarter, but it missed analyst targets February 2, 2017 Online retail giant Amazon.com's share price fell four per cent in after-hours trading as operating income and revenue for the fourth quarter fell lower than expected. The figures Amazon reported a 22.4 per cent increase in its fourth-quarter revenue, driven by strong sales in the holiday period and increased Prime subscriptions. Net sales were up [...]
FL Partners buys one of the UK’s largest construction recruiters as builders stay upbeat about hiring February 2, 2017 Dublin-based investment group FL Partners has acquired Potensis Recruitment, one of the largest recruiters to the UK housebuilding and construction industries. Potensis recruits temporary and permanent services across all job levels to the residential housebuilding, social housebuilding and commercial construction sectors. Its clients include many of Britain's leading listed housing groups. Peter Crowley and Neill Hughes, founders [...]
A senior Tory backbencher is threatening to defy Theresa May in next week’s Article 50 vote February 2, 2017 A senior Conservative MP has threatened to defy Prime Minister Theresa May over her Article 50 Bill and fears of handing the Prime minister “a blank cheque”. Neil Carmichael, who chairs the education select committee, said he was “looking carefully” at amendments tabled for the legislation, which grants the government the power to launch Brexit [...]
The attorney general has revealed how much he was paid for the Article 50 case February 2, 2017 Bankers may be fearing a doughnut this earnings season, but the attorney general revealed today he has recently taken a zero bonus of his own. Jeremy Wright told MPs in the House of Commons today that he and the advocate general for Scotland "received no additional fee for our work on the case". Wright also said [...]
Defaulting to WTO terms post-Brexit would be a disaster for British trade February 2, 2017 Now that MPs have given permission to trigger Article 50 and Theresa May has outlined her 12-point plan for Brexit in both a speech and a White Paper, we finally have some clarity about the government’s intentions. But we still start with a clean piece of paper: we are leaving the Single Market and the Customs [...]
A new complex is planned for the Greenwich Peninsula – but it has no affordable housing February 2, 2017 Images of the new landmark development at the Greenwich Peninsula have been unveiled, a project London mayor Sadiq Khan has tipped as a "new cultural district" for the capital. The scheme from developer Knight Dragon will provide new apartments, as well as offices, hotels, shops, bars and a theatre, over 1.4m square feet. The complex has [...]
It’s official: The City has the most high earners in European finance – with one asset manager raking in £29m in one year February 2, 2017 The likes of Frankfurt and Dublin might be bent on enticing London's bankers after Brexit, but if you're bent on earning the big bucks, the City is the only place to be. New figures have found the UK plays host to 80 per cent of the top earners in the region's finance sector. The paper, [...]
How are the UK’s business groups reacting to the Brexit white paper? February 2, 2017 Some of the UK's biggest business groups have come out in favour of a Brexit white paper published by the government today, but questions still remain on the rights of EU nationals. The Department for Exiting the European Union published the paper earlier this afternoon, following pressure from MPs to provide more information on Brexit [...]
“You just have to get on with things”: UK dealmaking is off to its best start to a year since 2008 February 2, 2017 UK dealmakers have had a flying beginning to the year, with 2017 marking the best annual start for British mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity since 2008. After Reckitt Benckiser’s offer for Mead Johnson Nutrition, the total value of deals involving UK parties so far this year has reached $34.9bn (£27.8bn), according to Thomson Reuters. Read [...]
Saudi Aramco will publish its finances ahead of what could be the world’s biggest IPO February 2, 2017 Saudi Aramco, which is plotting what is expected to be the world's largest initial public offering (IPO), will publish its annual financial statements before the float in 2018. The Saudi state-owned company will disclose 2017 annual statements prior to the listing, Bloomberg reported energy minister Khalid Al-Falih said today at a seminar in Riyadh. “Aramco applies [...]