By: Ali Lyon

chief reporter Ali Lyon is the chief reporter at City AM, responsible for covering the full gamut of business, finance and wealth news. He has been at City AM full-time since July 2024. Get in touch with tips via email: ali.lyon@cityam.com. Follow Ali on X: @alilyon_94

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Santander rejected £11bn Natwest bid for UK business

May 9, 2025

Santander rebuffed an £11bn bid for its UK retail banking division from Natwest earlier this year because it was was too low. The two lenders are no longer in negotiations, according to people familliar with the matter cited by the Financial Times, despite consistent speculation about the fate of the Spanish financial juggernaut’s UK business. [...]
Office for National Statistics chief resigns over ‘health issues’

May 9, 2025

The head of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has resigned because “ongoing health issues” mean he could not give the organisation the “full commitment” required to drive it forward. Sir Ian Diamond, who was appointed the UK’s national statistician in 2019, has stepped down with immediate effect, the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) said in [...]
Bailey: Benefits of UK-US trade deal will depend on other agreements

May 9, 2025

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has heralded the trade deal struck between the UK and US as “good news”, but cautioned that the UK’s economic prospects will still depend on agreements the US reaches with other trading partners. Speaking at an event in Reykjavik, Bailey welcomed the partnership announced by Donald Trump and Keir [...]
‘Imperative’ that Oxford Street pedestrianisation includes hospitality

May 9, 2025

The Mayor of London’s plan to pedestrianise Oxford Street must offer visitors “a mix of hospitality, leisure and retail” if it is to be successful – including eating and drinking spaces scattered through the middle of what used to be the road – the UK’s top hospitality lobby group has said. Writing to Sir Sadiq [...]
WFH: Blackrock orders managing directors to work full week from office

May 8, 2025

Blackrock is ordering its most senior staff to work from the office five days a week in the latest example of financial institutions abandoning the flexible working from home (WFH) policies many adopted in the wake of the pandemic. The investment juggernaut will tell its workers that all of its approximately 1,000 managing directors across [...]
Are we witnessing the slow death of advertising holding companies?

May 5, 2025

The feted founder of AKQA, Ajaz Ahmed, has launched a new agency that promises to take on the “slow, bureaucratic” ad groups that since the pandemic have have been labouring under stagnant revenues and falling share prices. Ali Lyon asks: “Are those holding companies on borrowed time?” Ajaz Ahmed is not a man to shy [...]
Kevin McCloud: Housebuilder ‘oligopoly’ needs urgent reform

May 2, 2025

Britain’s housebuilding industry is a cartel-like oligopoly that needs root and branch reform in order for the UK is to build enough high-quality homes to solve its housing crisis, Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud has said. In a withering assessment the track record of major housebuilders, McCloud said the UK construction sector’s supply chain had [...]
Rio Tinto shareholders reject move to ditch primary London listing

May 1, 2025

Rio Tinto will keep its primary London listing after the mining giant’s shareholders voted comprehensively to reject an activist investor’s push for the firm to abandon its current dual-listed structure. More than eight in 10 shareholders voted against the motion proposed by London-based Palliser Capital, which called for a review into whether the miner should [...]
Shein pauses London IPO as tariff hit sparks US restructuring plans

April 30, 2025

Fast-fashion giant Shein has put preparations for its London float on ice while it calculates the best way to respond to Donald Trump’s draconian tariffs on Chinese imports. According to the Financial Times, the Chinese-founded firm is considering a major overhaul of its US operations, which are especially exposed to the US administration’s sweeping trade [...]
US economy shrunk by 0.3 per cent in first quarter

April 30, 2025

The United States economy shrunk by 0.3 per cent in the first three months of 2025, after American companies raced to get ahead of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs by stockpiling imports. According to official government data, the US economy fell into contraction from growth of 2.4 per cent, with the effect of higher imports compounded [...]

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By: Ali Lyon

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