Marks & Spencer to close 12 stores in five Eastern European countries October 11, 2015 Marks & Spencer (M&S) is pulling out of five countries in eastern Europe, driven in part by heightened tensions between the West and Russia. The company is leaving Croatia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia, with store closures set to begin in January. The group plans to close 12 stores in total by May 2016. The [...]
Travelodge could be snapped up for £1bn as private equity firms close in October 11, 2015 Hotel chain Travelodge has reportedly caught the eye of several private equity firms and could be sold for £1bn instead of floating on the stock market. Advent International is interested in buying the group, as well as a number of other firms, according to the Sunday Times. Deutsche Bank was appointed in July to advise [...]
Tesco facing US court case as four firms sue over 2014 accounting scandal October 11, 2015 Tesco is being sued by a group of US funds over the 2014 accounting scandal which caused the supermarket's share price to collapse. In September last year, the company revealed that its profits had been overstated by £263m and the aftermath saw shares drop to a ten-year low. The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, [...]
City jobs hit a peak: Financial services push employment boom to all time high October 9, 2015 Financial services are powering a dramatic boom in jobs growth, with employment in the City now at an all time high, according to a major new report. At the end of June this year there were a record 729,000 people employed in financial and professional services in London, a 2.2 per cent increase on 2014, [...]
Former foreign secretary Lord Owen warns Brexit looms if Cameron fails to get EU change October 9, 2015 Former foreign secretary Lord David Owen has warned that unless Prime Minister David Cameron secures treaty change within the European Union, UK voters will vote to leave the EU. “If the British government reach an agreement in principle before the end of 2017, but do not achieve real and specific treaty changes prior to a [...]
Aim awards 2015: Junior market reaches fever pitch at the London Stock Exchange October 9, 2015 Awards season is officially in full swing, and the team behind Aim at the London Stock Exchange sure know how to party. About 1,300 guests from Aim-listed companies, as well as brokers, bankers, analysts, corporate advisers and fund managers descended on Old Billingsgate to celebrate the secondary index’s 20th award ceremony, sponsored by PwC. Fancy [...]
Number of employees reporting mental health problems rises to 41 per cent – CIPD October 9, 2015 More than 40 per cent of employers have seen an increase in reported mental health problems among workers, according to a new report to be published next week. The annual Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) absence management survey found that 41 per cent of organisations saw an increase in problems such as anxiety [...]
Labour’s London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan brands student visa rules ‘silly’ October 9, 2015 Labour's London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan has called the government’s immigration policies for students “silly”, just days after home secretary Theresa May took a hard line against visas for postgraduates. In a speech at the Institute of Directors (IoD) yesterday, Khan said: “As mayor, I’ll stand up to the silly visa restrictions this government has placed [...]
Rents rising faster outside London than in the capital – Rightmove October 9, 2015 Rents are rising faster outside of London than in the capital, according to a new report out today. Rightmove, the property website, said that rents have risen 1.3 per cent in the rest of the country, compared to 0.2 per cent in London, in the last three months. Rightmove also said that the so-called affordability [...]
Emerging market debt threatens global economy according to IMF warnings October 8, 2015 The global economy is struggling under a mountain of debt and heading for a fresh financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. Emerging market debt is chief among the “triad” of risks facing the globe, as these economies have over-borrowed by $3.3 trillion (£2.15 trillion) in the last decade, the IMF said in [...]
