Lloyds prepares for Brexit with Berlin banking licence January 18, 2019 Lloyds Banking Group has secured a banking license for its Berlin subsidiary as the Brexit deadline date approaches. The lender has previously run the office on a standard passporting licence, however all British banks with customers in the EU could lose the licence after March 29 therefore Lloyds is seeking further regulatory approval, Reuters reported. [...]
Hammond tells business chiefs no deal could be ‘taken off the table’ on leaked conference call January 17, 2019 Chancellor Philip Hammond has told business chiefs a no deal Brexit could be “taken off the table” and Article 50 rescinded, according to a leaked conference call transcript. In a conversation with 11 business leaders after Theresa May’s deal was defeated in parliament on Tuesday night, Hammond said the result led to two issues. Firstly, [...]
Sears chairman wins auction for troubled department store chain with $5.2bn bid January 16, 2019 The chairman of bankrupt US department store chain Sears has won an auction for the retailer with a bid of $5.2bn (£4bn). Read more: Bidders table competing offers for struggling HMV Eddie Lampert prevailed in the auction today after weeks of back-and-forth negotiations. Lampert’s bid, made through his hedge fund, ESL Investments, will keep up to [...]
Business titans tell ministers ‘next six months are critical’ in post-Brexit vote conference call January 16, 2019 Some of the UK’s highest-flying executives reportedly lashed out at the government after its historic defeat on Theresa May’s Brexit deal in parliament yesterday. The bosses of Balfour Beatty, Amazon and Tesco confronted cabinet members who failed to rule out a no-deal Brexit following the government’s massive defeat in a heated conference call immediately after [...]
Industrial and logistics take-up soars to record high in 2018 January 15, 2019 Fresh evidence of the UK’s industrial property boom was brought to light today, with new figures showing that take-up in the sector during 2018 hit a record high. Online retail giants such as Amazon have largely driven the rise in demand, as an increasing number of consumers turn to e-commerce for shopping. Total take-for big [...]
Company reveals a Braille e-reader to improve access to books for blind people January 14, 2019 A British company is set to launch an e-reader for blind people with the aim of making digital Braille books a practical alternative to their bulky print counterparts. Bristol Braille Technology spent six years developing the Canute 360, which it hopes will make Braille e-books “affordable, practical and enjoyable”. Read more: CES 2019: The world’s [...]
Top 10 CEOs: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos tops index of chief executives, but who else makes the list? January 14, 2019 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos today took the top spot in a new index that rates bosses on the star power they bring to their companies. Billionaire Bezos, who has run Amazon for the past 25 years, has come first in a ranking out today that measures the brand value the world’s most rich-and-famous chief executives [...]
Let Jeff Bezos be a lesson: Have a plan for if your marriage ends January 14, 2019 Amazon chief Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie have announced that their marriage is ending, likely leading to the largest divorce settlement in history. Though the couple has asserted that their separation will be amicable, the divorce proceedings could still be complex, highlighting the risks to entrepreneurs when marriages end. The law in Washington State, [...]
Christmas shoppers shunned the high street, but attacking Amazon won’t help January 11, 2019 Between the fierce renewal of the Brexit saga, parliamentary shenanigans, and a particularly chilling cold front (interpret that literally or metaphorically, as you will), the merriness of Christmas feels like a thing of the past. But for the high street, it feels like Christmas never came at all. Reports of retail sales, released yesterday by [...]
HMRC claims its online tax evasion crackdown has clawed back £200m January 11, 2019 The government claims to have recovered more than £200m of lost VAT from overseas sellers since gaining new powers, saying its crackdown on online tax evasion is paying off. HMRC has issued over 4,600 ‘red flag’ notices to online marketplaces such as Amazon and Ebay since 2016. The flags, called Joint and Several Liability (JSL) [...]