Online share of grocery sales hits record level during third lockdown March 1, 2021 The third national lockdown pushed the share of online grocery sales to a record high in January, double the level the previous month. The pandemic has accelerated the shift to online shopping with Britain’s big four supermarkets expanding their capacity during the crisis. The online share of grocery sales hit 16 per cent in January, [...]
US regulator approves Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine March 1, 2021 The Johnson & Johnson single-shot coronavirus jab has been given the green light by US regulators. It is the third vaccine the US Food and Drug Administration has approved, after Pfizer and Moderna, but the first to require only one shot. Before the Open newsletter: Start your day with the City View podcast and key [...]
A fifth of FTSE 100 firms changed CEO during pandemic March 1, 2021 A fifth of FTSE 100 bosses have left their roles over the past year as the pandemic ravaged corporates and triggered an overhaul of boardrooms. The outbreak of coronavirus saw a number of FTSE 100 tap shareholders for emergency funding as lockdown restrictions affected cashflow. As a result of this, there were 20 chief executive [...]
Tech titans club together to launch climate change taskforce March 1, 2021 Some of the UK’s largest tech firms are set to create a taskforce to tackle climate change with commitments to reach net zero and boost green investment. The fifteen companies will work alongside the government’s sustainable business council to help with the move The “Tech Zero taskforce” includes leaders of allplants, Bulb, Babylon, Citymapper, Faculty, [...]
Video game firm Catalis mulls London IPO February 28, 2021 The parent company of video game publisher Catalis is eyeing a public listing just over a year after being bought by a private equity firm. The firm is reportedly set to capitalise on the boom in video games amid the pandemic and join a host of young tech companies on the stock exchange. The company [...]
Paddy Power owner Flutter hands staff £14m February 28, 2021 Gambling giant Flutter Entertainment is set to give 14,000 staff a £1,000 bonus as a result of their work during the pandemic. The Paddy Power owner saw profit slide 70 per cent after major sports events were cancelled amid the pandemic. Chief executive Peter Jackson said “maybe we are all bookmakers at heart [and] there [...]
Chancellor set to launch tech visa following Kalifa review February 26, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to launch a fast-track visa programme for tech workers following proposals set out by the Kalifa review into the industry. Speaking to the Financial Times Sunak said the scheme would help “scale up” the industry, saying the new visa stream would be a “calling card for what we are about”. [...]
Kalifa review: Fintech industry welcomes ‘invaluable’ tech visa after Brexit February 26, 2021 Recommendations from the government-commissioned Kalifa review published today have been broadly welcomed by the fintech industry. The UK has been at the forefront of innovation in recent years – the sector is worth an estimated £11bn in revenue and represents 10 per cent of the global market. But the report, led by former Worldpay boss [...]
Financier Amanda Staveley loses High Court battle with Barclays February 26, 2021 Financier Amanda Staveley who sued Barclays over the behaviour of bank bosses when negotiating investment deals during the financial crash has lost her court battle. The high-profile trial centred around the claim that Barclays gave Staveley’s private equity firm PCP Capital Partners less favourable treatment than other parties in the emergency £7.3bn fundraising that saved [...]
EU likely to grant the City limited equivalence, says French minister February 26, 2021 The EU may grant the City limited access to its financial services market to allow the UK to do business across the bloc, a French minister has said. A minister close to Emmanuel Macron, Clement Beaune said Brussels may be able to grant limited equivalence by the middle of the year. Speaking to Bloomberg he [...]
