Stages of tax grief: Is it time for bankers to bargain? Banking Banks are in the firing line at the Budget and in a meeting with bosses on Tuesday chancellor John Healey played coy on any increased rates. In this week’s column Samuel Norman looks at what trade-off could be made. Also on the cards, fresh data shows fintechs are lurching ahead of the incumbents on customer [...]
Informa snaps up Clarion Events in £2.2bn deal with Blackstone Media Digital services giant Informa has snapped up the world’s largest privately owned event and exhibition organiser in a multi-billion pound deal with private equity firm Blackstone. The FTSE 100 group revealed on Tuesday it had acquired London-headquartered Clarion Events for £2.2bn from Blackstone. The deal brings over 100 business-to-business live event brands under the Informa [...]
Government intervenes as BT inks deal to rescue embattled Talktalk Telecoms Broadband giant BT has agreed to snap up embattled telecommunications firm Talktalk in a move that has prompted the government to weigh in. The FTSE 100 group said on Monday it had acquired Talktalk and its wholesale arm PlatformX Communications (PXC) out of administration on a debt-free basis. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, is [...]
Lloyd’s backs £40m transactional risk MGA targeting private capital September 21, 2026 Syndicates in the world’s leading insurance and reinsurance market, Lloyd’s of London, have agreed to provide up to £40m of risk capital per policy to back a new managing general agent in the City focused on the private capital sector. Alpha TR, a speciality insurance managing general agent (MGA), launched on Monday as a Lloyd’s [...]
Accel-KKR swoops on AIM construction software firm for £208m September 10, 2026 Private equity giant Accel-KKR has struck a deal to buy an AIM-listed construction software company in the latest of a wave of takeovers on the London Stock Exchange this year. The group has snapped up Eleco for £207.6m in a deal backed by the company’s board. Shareholders are in line for a 235p per share [...]
Abolish stamp duty on shares to reverse London’s IPO slump, say top fintechs September 9, 2026 The group that represents the UK’s fastest growing fintech companies has called for the government to scrap stamp duty on shares to boost London’s flagging initial public offering market. Innovate Finance – which counts Revolut, Monzo and Zilch among its members – has called for the Treasury to ditch the 0.5 per cent levy on [...]
Value of UK deals rockets as buyers pounce on FTSE 100 firms September 9, 2026 The value of UK merger and acquisitions more than doubled in the first half of 2026 as foreign buyers capitalised on sluggish valuations to pick off some of Britain’s most valuable companies. Takeovers worth some £124bn were struck in the first six months of the year, up 107 per cent year-on-year from £60bn in the [...]
Can OSB’s new boss cut through the noise? September 2, 2026 A FTSE 250 bank has a new boss and plenty of challenges to confront . In this week’s column, Samuel Norman looks at what could be next for OSB. Enrique Labiano confronted a tricky inheritance when he got his feet under the desk on his first day at the helm of OSB on Tuesday. The [...]
Trio of firms poised to quit London Stock Exchange as exodus gathers pace September 1, 2026 The scale of the exodus from the London Stock Exchange has been laid bare on the first trading day back from the summer break after three listed companies simultaneously unveiled plans to exit the market. FTSE 250 members Bodycote and Gamma Communications, as well as energy firm Capricorn, each laid out fresh offers to be [...]
Paramount-Warner Bros deal faces ‘sufficient competition’, says CMA August 17, 2026 The Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery merger will face “sufficient competition” in the UK to prevent the combined Hollywood giant from gaining too much market power, the competition watchdog has said. In a full decision published on Monday, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) laid out why it cleared the £111bn tie-up earlier this month, after examining [...]