Moonpig owner is set for £500m listing in London March 10, 2014 PHOTOBOX is preparing for a London Stock Market listing that could value the photo printing group at up to £500m, after the £1.6bn flotation of online retailer AO World and upcoming flotation of Pets at Home whetted investors’ appetites for London retail stocks. The firm, which sells personalised t-shirts, mugs and cards as well as [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 26 March 2014 March 25, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Banks pay out $100bn in US fines Wall Street banks and their foreign rivals have paid out $100bn in US legal settlements since the financial crisis, according to Financial Times research, with more than half of the penalties extracted in the past year. The sum reflects a substantial shift in political attitudes towards [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 28 February 2014 February 27, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Investors disappointed in AO float Hundreds of institutions that tried to buy into the float of online retailer AO World have been left disappointed, after 85 per cent of the new issue was awarded to just 15 investors. One-third of the 300 institutions that applied for shares in the float received no allocation [...]
Could pee-power be the next energy source? Bill Gates backs scientists using urine to charge phones August 14, 2014 When explorers were filling in the 'here be dragons' gaps on maps and discovering weird and wonderful things like the potato, drinking urine was often resorted to as a means of survival. Now the BioEnergy team at Bristol Robotics Laboratory – a collaboration between the University of Bristol and the University of the West [...]
Amazon’s Twitch purchase heralds a new age of creative consumption August 28, 2014 It's enough to make an accountant develop a nervous one. This week Amazon snapped up Twitch, a video platform and community for computer gamers, paying the princely sum of $970m (£585m) in cash. That’s a lot of money for something many people have never heard of – more than three times the amount Amazon spent [...]
We’ve discovered the UK’s tech unicorns – now we must nurture their growth September 7, 2014 After creating its first product in the 1970s, it took Apple years to become one of the world’s most valuable companies. But in today’s technology sector, a new breed of tech firm is emerging – the unicorn. The unicorn is a startup that grows exponentially to reach a billion-dollar valuation within a few years of [...]
Dealmakers thrive in City’s flotation frenzy September 14, 2014 DEALMAKER of the year Although there has been a dearth of mergers and acquisitions so far this year, there has been a rash of initial public offerings (IPOs) for our dealmakers to get their teeth into. There has been some exciting deals for bankers to get a buzz from. Verizon Wireless’ $130bn deal to take [...]
Bottom Line: AO could be the next online retail success February 26, 2014 WHITE goods retailer AO.com has done little to dissuade comparisons with Asos, the phenomenally successful online fashion retailer that floated 13 years ago – when it announced listing plans earlier this month it even named former Asos chairman Brian McBride (also an ex-Amazon UK managing director) to its board. Yesterday’s 32 per cent rise in shares [...]
The digital high street: Dixons and Carphone Warehouse confirm merger May 15, 2014 Dixons Retail, the owner of Currys and PC World, and Carphone Warehouse have announced they are to merge into a new company, called "Dixons Carphone". The £3.8bn deal will see ownership split equally between the two firms' existing shareholders. The companies are set make cost savings of £80m per year by 2018. If [...]
Giant panda numbers are up: see them in Chengdu February 23, 2014 They famously eat shoots and leaves. LISA YOUNG gets up-close and personal with the Chinese city’s most famous residents IT’S a warm August morning, the time of year when the sizzling Chengdu summer gives way to cooler climes. Chengdu sits in a fog-filled bowl 500 metres above sea level in the Sichuan Province of south [...]