Surge in bumper deals helps UK M&A regain its mojo December 18, 2020 After a slow start to the year UK M&A has bounced back after a surge in mega deals saw activity soar 80 per cent. M&A with UK involvement has totalled £429.8bn so far this year, 80 per cent more than the value recorded in 2019 according to research by data provider Refinitiv. A staggering 21 [...]
Lloyds axes staff bonuses despite return to profitability December 18, 2020 Lloyds Bank is set to scrap bonuses for all of its employees after it saw profits plunge due to the pandemic. The bank returned to profit in the third quarter reporting a pre-tax profit of £1bn, well ahead of the average £588m forecasted by analysts. But its pre-tax profit for the first nine months of [...]
Brexit talks in a ‘serious situation’ ahead of deadline December 17, 2020 Downing Street has said Brexit trade talks are in a “serious situation” following a call with the European Commission president. Following the call a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister underlined that the negotiations were now in a serious situation. Time was very short and it now looked very likely that agreement would not [...]
Cryptoexchange Coinbase confidentially files for IPO December 17, 2020 Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has said it has submitted the necessary paperwork to officially go public in an IPO. The company said it had “confidentially submitted our draft registration (Form S1) with the Securities and Exchange Commission.” There had been rumblings of a float over the summer according to Reuters reports. [...]
Robinhood pays $65m to settle SEC charges December 17, 2020 Stock trading app Robinhood has agreed to pay $65m in charges to settle claims it had misled customers about payments it received for handling their trades. Between 2015 and late 2018, Robinhood made “misleading statements and omissions in customer communications… about its largest revenue source when describing how it made money,” according to the Securities [...]
Gocardless nears $1bn valuation after latest funding round December 17, 2020 London fintech Gocardless is nearing unicorn status after its latest funding round amid a digital payments boom. The Alphabet-backed company announced it had raised $95m in its latest funding round led by the venture capital arm of Bain Capital, valuing the firm at over $970m. “This funding round demonstrates the strength of the business and [...]
Google faces multi-state antitrust lawsuit for ‘anticompetitive conduct’ December 16, 2020 The Texas attorney general has announced he will file a multi state lawsuit against Google on behalf of a coalition of states. In a video posted on Twitter attorney general Ken Paxton said: ““The state of Texas is filing a multi state lawsuit against Google for anticompetitive conduct, exclusionary practices and deceptive misrepresentations. Google repeatedly [...]
Federal Reserve extends debt purchases to boost economy December 16, 2020 The Federal Reserve has announced plans to keep buying government debt in a bid to boost the faltering US economy. Since June the Fed has been buying $80bn in Treasury bonds and $40bn in mortgage bonds per month and today pledged to buy assets at least at that pace for the “coming months”. The new [...]
UK agrees post-Brexit customs agreement with US December 16, 2020 The UK has signed a customs agreement with the US, ensuring trade between the countries is not disrupted after the Brexit transition ends at the end of the month. The bilateral Customs Assistance Agreement will allow customs authorities to continue to cooperate, including sharing data, to tackle customs fraud. The agreement was signed by the [...]
Bitcoin surpasses $20,000 to hit all-time high December 16, 2020 Bitcoin has surpassed $20,000 this afternoon reaching its highest ever level making it one of the best performing assets of the year. The cryptocurrency jumped 4.5 per cent to trade as high as $20,440 after a strong year which has seen demand from larger institutional investors. The pandemic has led to a reassessment of bitcoin [...]
