Wagamama owner The Restaurant Group agrees £340m debt terms with lender December 22, 2022 The Restaurant Group has announced an amendment and extension of its debt facilities, with a revised £340m package. On Thursday, the owner of the Wagamama and Frankie & Benny’s brands said the new deal comprised of a £220m term loan facility and a £120m revolving credit facility with its existing lenders. The new terms represented [...]
China: Quiet trading floors and hampered supply chains as Covid-19 spreads December 19, 2022 Covid-19 is sweeping though China’s capital city according to reports, after strict measures were suddenly removed earlier this month. The virus has quietened trading floors in Beijing and is also spreading fast in the financial hub of Shanghai, according to a Reuters report. Stock trading volume has fallen in the last week, with most currency [...]
JP Morgan raises China growth forecasts as country braces for Covid-19 spike December 15, 2022 JP Morgan has hiked its growth forecasts for China, after the sudden removal of its ‘zero-Covid’ laws paves the way for a brighter economy. The US bank now expects China’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 30 basis points to 4.3 per cent next year. “The most important development in the past month is [...]
Baroness Mone loses Tory whip over £200m PPE contract row December 7, 2022 Rishi Sunak has confirmed that Baroness Mone is no longer under the Conservative whip due to the row over PPE contracts. The Prime Minister confirmed she is no longer aligned with the party in the House of Lords, saying he was “absolutely shocked” about revelations this week. This comes after Baroness Mone said she would [...]
Pfizer and BioNTech countersue Moderna in Covid-19 patent row December 6, 2022 Pfizer and German partner BioNTech shot back at competitor Moderna last night in the latest jab in the Covid-19 vaccine patent lawsuit. The sparring over allegations from Moderna that Pfizer and BioNTech violated the rights its three patents it created prior to the pandemic has been ongoing since August. All three companies are also embroiled [...]
Link between long-Covid and work absence is strongest in older workers, ONS says December 5, 2022 A link between so-called ‘long Covid’ and absence from the labour market has been highlighted for the first time since the pandemic. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show 23.3 per cent of 16-64 year-olds with long-covid were economically inactive as of July of this year. This, compared to 21.4 per cent being [...]
China hints at easing ‘zero-Covid’ approach following widespread protests December 1, 2022 China’s stance to Covid-19 is at a crossroad, following mass protests against its zero-tolerance approach to cases of the virus. One of the country’s most senior pandemic response officials said last night that China is entering a “new stage and mission”. According to state media, Sun Chunlan, China’s vice premier, said: “With the decreasing pathogenicity [...]
Bird & Bird hikes new lawyers’ salaries for second time this year December 1, 2022 London law firm Bird & Bird has given its newly qualified (NQ) lawyers a pay hike for the second time this year. The law firm has given its NQ lawyers a five per cent pay rise in upping their annual pay to £92,400 per year, a Bird & Bird spokesperson told City A.M. The pay [...]
Musk dumps Twitter’s Covid disinformation policy November 29, 2022 Elon Musk has abandoned Twitter’s Covid disinformation policy in a grand push for free speech. “Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the Covid-19 misleading information policy,” a notice on its website reads. The new owner of the social media firm axed the former “Covid-19 misleading information policy” page, outlining rules surrounding Covid [...]
China Covid-19 cases hit record high as Beijing postpones ‘reopening’ November 24, 2022 Daily Covid-19 cases in China have hit a record high, cementing a fresh wave of concern that the country will not ‘open up’ after all. Wednesday saw 31,527 cases recorded compared with an April peak of 28,000. The figures are relatively small for the country of 1.4bn people. Beijing’s controversial ‘zero-Covid’ policies were hoped to [...]