Ocado retains crown as Britain’s fastest-growing supermarket February 4, 2020 Ocado has retained its position as Britain’s fastest growing supermarket, with the online grocer achieving its quickest growth in the North of England. Ocado’s overall sales grew 11.2 per cent year-on-year during the quarter, with its market share rising 0.2 percentage points, according to data from Kantar. While over half of the grocer’s sales come [...]
Skills shortages continue to hit growth as UK employers struggle to find the right talent February 4, 2020 Skills shortages are continuing to impact economic growth, with almost three quarters of businesses reporting difficulties recruiting new talent at the end of last year, a new report found. While the UK’s labour market remained stable in the fourth quarter of 2019, with over half of firms attempting to recruit, 72 per cent of businesses [...]
Goldman Sachs ‘in talks’ to partner with Amazon on small business loans February 3, 2020 Goldman Sachs is reportedly in advanced talks with Amazon to offer small business loans in the US, as the Wall Street giant looks to the tech titan in a bid to break into the mainstream areas of financial services. Goldman Sachs has begun building technology that would allow it to offer loans to small and [...]
Citigroup suspends senior bond trader over alleged canteen theft February 3, 2020 Citigroup has suspended one of its most senior London-based bond trader after accusing him of stealing from the office canteen. Paras Shah abruptly left his post as head of Citi’s head of EMEA high-yield bond trading last month. The Financial Times reported that the bank suspended Shah after alleging he had stolen food from the [...]
Recording shows Iran immediately knew it had shot down plane, says Ukrainian president February 3, 2020 A leaked audio recording of a pilot talking to Tehran’s control tower shows that Iran immediately knew it had shot down a Ukranian airliner last month, Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. On a leaked recording played on Ukranian television late yesterday, the pilot of another plane can be heard saying he saw “the light of [...]
Citigroup names new treasury and trade head for Britain and Europe February 3, 2020 Citigroup has appointed Peter Crawley as its new head of treasury and trade solutions (TTS) for Britain and Europe. Crawley, who has been Citigroup’s TTS head for Sub-Saharan Africa since 2013, will take up the new role in April, according to an internal memo. He will be responsible “for driving the business strategy, new business [...]
Payments company Worldline to buy rival Ingenico in €7.8bn deal February 3, 2020 Worldline has agreed to buy French rival Ingenico, creating a new global payments player in a rapidly-consolidating industry in a €7.8bn (£6.6bn) deal. The two companies said the deal would create a new European leader in the sector and the world’s fourth largest payment services provider, which would provide services to nearly one million merchants [...]
Investment giant Legal & General to vote against combined chair and chief executive roles February 3, 2020 Legal & General’s investment arm will vote against combined chief executive and board chairman roles globally, taking on business giants including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Blackrock’s Larry Fink. Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), one of the largest investment companies in the world with over £1 trillion under management, announced the change as part of [...]
Coronavirus: Hong Kong closes 10 of 13 China borders February 3, 2020 Hong Kong has suspended 10 of its 13 border crossings with mainland China as the coronavirus outbreak spreads. Leader Carrie Lam stopped short of closing the entire border despite calls to do so as the city fights to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which has now claimed 361 lives. Hong Kong has now seen [...]
UK competition watchdog to push for tighter controls on US tech giants February 3, 2020 The UK’s competition watchdog will push for tougher powers to regulate companies such as Google and Facebook following the UK’s official departure from the EU, and will pursue antitrust investigations against tech giants independently of the bloc. “The upside [Brexit] is that you take back control — genuinely — of the decisions,” Competition and Markets [...]
