Foxtons buys West London rival Douglas & Gordon for £14.25m March 2, 2021 London-listed estate agent Foxtons has confirmed it has acquired West London-based firm Douglas & Gordon for £14.25m. It comes just a week after the FTSE firm confirmed it was in discussions to “reflect the company’s stated ambition to acquire high quality businesses with strong lettings books.” Douglas and Gordon, which is run by former Foxtons [...]
UK performance drags on Robert Walters full-year profit March 2, 2021 Recruitment firm Robert Walters has reported a 25 per cent drop in gross profit for the full year as fee income slipped. It came as group net fee income fell 26 per cent to £302.4m for the year ended 31 December. “The sequential quarter-on-quarter improvement in net fee income from quarter two onwards, combined with [...]
Hong Kong explores allowing SPAC listings March 2, 2021 Hong Kong is considering allowing SPAC listings as the popularity of blank-cheque vehicles starts to pick up outside the US. Special-acquisition companies (SPACS) are vehicles that raise capital through a public listing with the purpose of acquiring an existing company. They offer private companies a faster and more predictable way to go public and have [...]
Credit Suisse halts redemptions on $10bn Greensill-linked funds March 1, 2021 Credit Suisse has suspended redemptions and subscriptions on a range of investments linked to the Softbank-backed finance firm Greensill Capital. Greensill Capital is the brainchild of former Citigroup and Morgan Stanley financier Lex Greensill and it employs former PM David Cameron as an adviser. Greensill specialises in supply-chain finance where businesses borrow money to pay [...]
Campaigners slam Aviva’s ‘ambiguous’ net zero commitment March 1, 2021 Climate campaigners have questioned Aviva’s net zero commitment claiming the insurance giant will continue to invest in fossil fuels. This morning Aviva announced it planned to shrink its carbon footprint to net zero by 2040. The firm said it had written to the biggest carbon emitters in its portfolio urging them to sign up to [...]
Klarna’s valuation soars to $31bn after $1bn funding round March 1, 2021 Klarna has secured a $1bn fundraising round bringing the valuation of the buy now pay later firm to $31bn. The four times oversubscribed round makes Klarna the highest-valued European private fintech after a surge in online shopping during the pandemic. It comes amid speculation that the Swedish payments firm will go public with chief executive [...]
FCA failed to act for two years on Woodford concerns March 1, 2021 The Financial Conduct Authority was made aware of concerns with Neil Woodford’s now collapsed investment business but failed to act for almost two years. The disgraced former stock picker was forced to suspend his flagship fund in June 2019 sparking a scandal that rocked the investment industry. Concerns over the strategy were raised in 2015, [...]
Wagamama owner The Restaurant Group burns through £5.5m a month during lockdown March 1, 2021 Wagamama owner The Restaurant Group has said it expects to burn through £5.5m a month until lockdown restrictions are lifted. The group announced details of the cash burn rate at Christmas but today said it expected to stay at this level until the end of restrictions, which are due to be lifted no earlier than [...]
Russian retailer Fix Price targets $1.7bn London listing March 1, 2021 Russian budget retailer Fix Price is targeting an IPO size of between $1.5bn and $1.7bn as it finalises its London listing. Earlier this month the company, which is the largest value retailer in Russia, announced its float would allow it to pursue growth and international expansion. Fix Price, which launched in 2007, has more than [...]
BT chair Jan du Plessis steps down to ‘focus on other interests’ March 1, 2021 BT chair Jan du Plessis will step down from the board less than four years after joining the telecoms firm. The former Rio Tinto chair joined BT as a non-executive director in June 2017 and was appointed chair that November. Prior to his role at the telecoms giant, du Plessis was chairman of SABMiller when [...]
