Legal & General has completed its £1.1bn buyout of Rolls-Royce’s pension scheme November 14, 2016 Legal & General announced today it has completed a £1.1bn pension buyout for the Vickers Group Pension Scheme, part of the Rolls-Royce Group, covering over 11,000 members. The company also revealed this morning that retirement sales in the year to date were £6.7bn, made up of £6.3bn in annuities and £400m in lifetime mortgages. L&G recently [...]
UK-listed Greencore announces $750m deal for US frozen breakfast sandwich maker Peacock Foods November 14, 2016 Food supplier Greencore Group has agreed a $747.5m (£594.3m) takeover deal for Peacock Foods, a US company specialising in frozen breakfast sandwiches. Peacock, which also makes chilled meal kits for children and salad kits, generates revenues of approximately $1bn and reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) of $72.1m in the year to [...]
The Battle for Virality: How the advertising industry stole Christmas November 14, 2016 Consumer capitalism is like an annual balloon, pumping in steady increments throughout the year. It grows and grows, stretching and straining around November, taut before the Black Friday Pin; the pressure too much, one prick and the balloon explodes in a relentless cloud of Christmas advertising. But where has this volley come from? We can’t even [...]
Success by design: City A.M. meets ePorta founder Aneeqa Khan November 14, 2016 For a business traversing the worlds of interior design and technology, you might expect the office of Eporta to be plush with elegant textiles, walnut coffee tables, and moody pendant lamps. But presently, it’s not. “I am someone who cares about my surroundings,” says Aneeqa Khan, founder of Eporta. “This office really isn’t nice enough [...]
Iran is open for business with a post-Brexit UK November 14, 2016 Iran is officially open for business after four years in the global wilderness. Following the imposition of financial sanctions in 2012 by the US for its burgeoning nuclear weapons programme, it was almost impossible for the west to do any business with Iran. Those sanctions were lifted earlier this year after France, Germany, UK, Russia and [...]
Interserve contract will deliver “double-digit cost savings” across government departments November 14, 2016 Civil servants promised big savings to taxpayers after agreeing a contract with Interserve to consolidate operations across six government departments. The FTSE 250 group today announced a deal with the departments that will be worth £40m over five years, which "hopes to achieve annual double-digit cost savings". Read more: Interserve wins place on £4bn construction framework John Manzoni, [...]
Large numbers of Britain’s care homes expect to go bust in the next three years November 14, 2016 Banks who have lent to care homes could fail to recoup their debts as large numbers are expected to go bust over the next three years. The double-whammy of local government budget cuts and the introduction of the national living wage has put the care home sector under significant pressure in recent years. Read more: Number of [...]
Thomas Cook invests in more own-brand hotels across Europe as it seeks to shake off Turkey tourism decline November 14, 2016 Thomas Cook is branching out its own-brand portfolio with the launch of 14 more hotels in the next two years. It is investing in new hotels across Europe, with locations in Cyprus, Kos, Mallorca and Sicily, as well as elsewhere, including the Maldives. The company said it formed part of its strategy to secure long-term profitable [...]
Britain’s companies need to find new ways to incentivise staff so bottom lines are not impacted November 14, 2016 Britain's companies will need to find more creative ways of incentivising staff to mitigate pressure on bottom lines as they start to feel the pinch of increasing inflation over the coming months. FTSE 350 companies have already pencilled in two per cent wage increases for 2016 according to a survey by PwC. Read more: Openness [...]
Most fintech employees don’t value diversity in the workplace November 14, 2016 Fintech might be shaking up the financial industry with disruptive innovation, but new research suggests it hasn’t been so ahead of the crowd on diversity in the workplace. In fact fintech employees place the lowest value on diversity in the workplace of all financial services workers, according to recruitment firm Astbury Marsden. The survey of [...]