Watchdog tells financial firms to be ready in case of no-deal Brexit January 23, 2020 Financial firms in the UK should be ready in case Britain does not reach a trade deal with the European Union by December, according to a senior regulator. Britain leaves the EU next week, with “business as usual” transition period in place until December. Formal trade talks are set to begin in the coming weeks. [...]
CMC Markets strikes upbeat note as income beats expectations January 23, 2020 Online trading platform CMC Markets has lifted its full-year income expectations once again after its third quarter income beat predictions, as an increased focus on partnerships and professional traders pays off. In a trading update on Thursday, CMC said third quarter net operating income came in above expectations, and that net operating income for the [...]
FTSE 100 slumps on increased coronavirus fears January 23, 2020 The FTSE 100 fell after the open this morning, taking its cue from its Asian peers, which slumped amid growing concerns over the spread of the new flu-like coronavirus from China. Britain’s blue chip index opened down, and was trading 0.49 per cent down by 8.30am, with miners and oil majors weighing on the index. [...]
Liquidity concerns mount as investors pull £1bn from Mark Barnett’s Invesco funds January 22, 2020 Investors pulled at least £1bn from Invesco funds managed by Mark Barnett in the final quarter of 2019 amid mounting concerns over liquidity following the collapse of Neil Woodford’s investment empire. Estimates from financial data provider Morningstar suggest the three funds managed by Barnett — Invesco Income, High Income, and UK Strategic Income — suffered [...]
Monty Python star Terry Jones dies aged 77 January 22, 2020 Monty Python star Terry Jones has died at the age of 77, his agent has said. Jones, who founded the comedy group and directed three of its feature films, announced in 2016 that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which restricted his speech. “We are deeply saddened to have to announce the passing [...]
Sage reports strong revenue growth amid continued subscription momentum January 22, 2020 Software company Sage has reported strong revenue growth for the first quarter of the 2020 financial year, boosted by the performance of its software subscription business. Total group revenue at the Newcastle-headquartered company grew 6.7 per cent to £465m in the three months ending 31 December, with recurring revenue increasing 11 per cent year-on-year. Sage [...]
As Vodafone quits, who’s left at Facebook’s Libra project? January 22, 2020 Vodafone has withdrawn from the organisation overseeing Facebook’s efforts to launch its Libra digital currency, making it the latest in a string of big companies to abandon the project. Facebook’s Libra project has faced intense scrutiny from regulators and politicians across the world over the social media giant’s plans for the launch of the stablecoin [...]
Small business finance fintech Liberis raises £32m to boost growth plans January 22, 2020 London-based fintech Liberis has raised £32m to help fund the growth of the small business finance provider and expansion in the US and Europe. The funding raise is the first institutional equity fundraise by Liberis, which lends money to small businesses against their future debit and credit card sales, and was led by investment firm [...]
Profit halves at Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler as diesel scandal weighs January 22, 2020 Daimler has issued its third profit warning for 2019 as costs related to the diesel scandal and production issues weighed on the German luxury carmaker. Damiler, which owns Mercedes-Benz, said this morning that its 2019 earnings before interest and tax are expected to slump to €5.6bn (£4.8bn), compared to €11.1bn the previous year. These results [...]
Housebuilders lead FTSE 100 bounce as coronavirus fears abate January 22, 2020 The FTSE 100 rebounded this morning following its worst performance in two weeks on Tuesday, with housebuilders leading the blue chip index after Berkeley raised its planned shareholder returns. The index gained 0.10 per cent in morning trading, led by Berkley. The company climbed as much as 5.40 per cent to hit a record high [...]