Week ahead: Volatile markets are forecast ahead of the referendum June 20, 2016 Recent wild swings in the FTSE 100 are expected to continue until the European Union referendum on Thursday as polls show the electorate evenly split on the decision. At last week’s close, the FTSE rose from a four-month low, up 1.2 per cent, to 6,021.09 points. It was, however, down 1.5 per cent for the week, [...]
UK banks halve property lending in just two years as developers look to peer to peer lenders June 20, 2016 UK banks have halved their lending to property developers over the past two years, in an effort to de-risk their balance sheets. According to new data from peer-to-peer property funding platform Saving Stream, bank loans to property developers fell from £32.5bn in April 2014 to £14.9bn in April 2016. Meanwhile, alternative financing options have entered the mainstream, [...]
Mercia looks for growth potential at universities June 20, 2016 Investment firm Mercia Technologies has partnered with four universities in the North of England and Scotland to source new opportunities. The universities – Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh Napier, St Andrews, and Sheffield Hallam – were chosen due Mercia’s regional expansion targets. The Aim-traded firm, which says it focuses on the creation, funding and scaling of businesses with high [...]
VW set for face-off with investors in Germany at shareholders’ meeting June 19, 2016 German car giant Volkswagen will face the ire of investors on Wednesday. Questions are expected to focus on the firm’s board structure and lingering issues over emissions. Advisory groups have come out in force against the company. Hermes, EOS, Institutional Shareholder Services, and Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) have urged clients to reject a [...]
Music fans take over Dalston club Passing Clouds after new owners change the locks June 19, 2016 Protesters have occupied Dalston club Passing Clouds, after the site’s new owners changed the locks and announced plans to turn the venue into an office block. More than 200 people gathered outside the club on Friday afternoon, before entering the building and performing a common law eviction of the new owners. The Passing Clouds team [...]
Ingenious Media joins Hejing Capital in historic $200 million film-making deal June 19, 2016 A London-based investment company has made history by becoming the first to take advantage of the UK-China film co-production treaty. Ingenious Media has partnered with Beijing’s Hejing Culture to co-finance and co-produce a series of independent films, in a deal worth $200m (£138m). Neil Forster, chief executive of Ingenious, told City A.M. that the first joint [...]
Proposed merger between National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf would create the Middle East’s biggest bank June 19, 2016 Two of Abu Dhabi’s biggest banks are in talks to merge, in a move that would create the biggest bank in the Middle East. National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) and First Gulf Bank (FGB) have announced that they are considering a merger, which would form an entity with approximately $170bn (£117bn) in assets. NBAD [...]
London transport officials in early-stage talks to bring mobile coverage on to underground June 19, 2016 The London underground could be getting mobile coverage after it emerged Transport for London (TfL) is in talks with several potential providers. The discussions, still in their early stages, are thought to involve a division of the US networking giant Commscope, Airvana, which specialises in providing mobile signals in small spaces. The plans to bring [...]
Big six energy giants set to avoid break up June 19, 2016 The six biggest energy companies in the country will avoid being broken up this week. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is set to publish the findings of its two-year investigation in to the industry on Friday. The report is expected demand suppliers create a database of so-called disengaged customers, who have been on a standard [...]
Buy-out firms vie for Reuters clinical assets June 19, 2016 Private equity firms BC Partners, Carlyle, and Bain Capital have been shortlisted as bidders for part of Thomson Reuters’ media empire. Thomson’s intellectual property and sciences units, valued in the region of £2bn, were put up for sale after it was decided they were no longer core to the company. Thomson is expected to use [...]
