Fintech boom means Brexit won’t hurt exports June 14, 2016 Exporting can be a powerful driver of business growth, and small and medium-sized enterprises that sell overseas often find themselves more successful in their domestic market as a result of what they learn from exporting. So, I was disheartened to see at a recent seminar hosted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, that only around 20 per [...]
Virgin Active is shredding for summer June 14, 2016 Gym operator Virgin Active is trimming the fat and selling 35 of its UK clubs to rival Nuffield Health as part of plans to refocus on its more exclusive locations. The deal is expected to complete this summer, with the clubs, their members and staff moving across to Nuffield. Virgin Active will have 61 clubs left [...]
Raspberry Pi maker Premier Farnell to be sold to Datwyler Technical Components in £792m deal June 14, 2016 Shares in Premier Farnell, the company behind the ultra-affordable Raspberry Pi, a credit card-sized single-board computer, have surged 50 per cent after the group revealed it has agreed a takeover deal with a subsidiary of Swiss manufacturer Datwyler. Bidco has offered 165p per share in cash, which values Premier Farnell at around £615m, and represents a premium of around 51 per [...]
Policeman and his partner killed in Paris terrorist attack June 14, 2016 A French police chief and his partner were killed late last night, in a knife attack claimed by Islamic State (Isis). The policeman was stabbed to death in front of his home in the Paris suburb of Magnanville, and his partner's body was found inside the building, officials said. The attacker barricaded himself inside his [...]
London travel disruption: Bond Street station closed and no service on Jubilee Line between Waterloo and Finchley Road due to person on the track June 13, 2016 Bond Street station is closed this afternoon due to a person on the tracks. The station was evacuated shortly after 3pm when a person jumped onto the Jubilee Line track. There is currently no service on the Jubilee Line going in both directions between Waterloo and Finchley Road stations because of the incident, and there are severe delays [...]
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou urges Fastjet shareholders to vote to remove chairman Colin Child June 13, 2016 EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has written to shareholders of African budget airline FastJet and urged them to vote to remove the company's chairman at its annual meeting which will take place in London next Tuesday 28 June. Shares in FastJet were down 7.8 per cent in mid-afternoon trading. Haji-Ioannou owns around 12 per cent of FastJet's stock through his [...]
William Hill offers shortest ever odds on Brexit June 13, 2016 William Hill has this morning announced it is offering its shortest ever odds on the UK voting to leave the EU next week. The bookmaker is now offering odds of 7/4, or a 36 per cent probability, for a bet on an Out vote. It was offering odds of 4/9 for a bet on an In [...]
UK Oil and Gas Investments’ share price leaps over six per cent – then falls back as firm buys further acreage in the Weald Basin June 13, 2016 UK Oil & Gas Investments (Ukog) has paid £3.5m to buy another licence in the Weald Basin, near Gatwick Airport. Shares in the company were up 6.35 per cent as trading began this morning, but have since fallen back and are currently down 1.11 per cent. Ukog previously announced it had discovered a massive amount of oil [...]
Tennis star Andy Murray serves up three more investments via Seedrs June 13, 2016 Tennis star and former Wimbledon champ Andy Murray has announced three more investments in British startups, made via the crowdfunding platform Seedrs. Murray, who lost to rival Novak Djokovic in the final of the French Open last weekend, has invested in Beeline, Dog Tracker Nano and blow LTD. The size of the investments has not been disclosed. Beeline is [...]
Don’t bank on an Uber moment… yet June 10, 2016 It’s an interesting time to be working with most of the world’s largest banks. If economic instability, skills gaps and a tsunami of regulation weren’t enough, they now face stern warnings from respected ex-colleagues about the future of the industry. Step forward Anthony Jenkins, the ex-Barclays banker who reiterated last week that banks are facing their ‘Uber moment’. That’s [...]
