Saga hikes profit expectations following Ageas deal January 30, 2025 Saga, the financial services and travel provider for over-50s, has said it expects to report an underlying profit before tax above previous guidance. In a trading update, the firm said it expected underlying profit before tax for the last six months of 2024 to come in marginally higher than the year before. Saga’s travel arm [...]
St James’s Place: Stock price jumps after new money surge January 30, 2025 St James’s Place brought in £4.3bn in new money throughout 2024, bringing its total assets under management to a record £190.2bn. Britain’s largest wealth manager attracted £1.5bn of new money over the last quarter of the year, it said in a trading update, 70 per cent ahead of expectations. The firm’s pension arm brought in [...]
Nick Train: ‘I’m running out of ways to say sorry’ for poor performance January 29, 2025 Star fund manager Nick Train has apologised again for the poor performance of his £1.4bn Finsbury Growth & Income trust. Over the last five years, the trust’s share price has grown only 10.9 per cent, compared to its benchmark’s growth of 26.5 per cent, according to its most recent factsheet. Tracking the FTSE All-Share index, [...]
Raspberry Pi stock dips after profit forecast at lower end January 29, 2025 Raspberry Pi’s stock price has dipped by 2.2 per cent after it said adjusted operating profit was expected to come in on the low end of what had been expected by markets. The Cambridge-based tech firm said it expected its full year adjusted operating profit to be above $36m (£28.9m), compared to a range of [...]
GKN owner Dowlais faces merger from US competitor January 29, 2025 GKN Automotive owner Dowlais Group has become the latest London-listed firm to receive a merger offer from a US competitor. In a stock exchange announcement, Dowlais said that Michigan-based American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings had offered £1.16bn for the firm. The merger offer represents a 25 per cent premium on Dowlais’ closing price last night and [...]
AJ Bell: DIY investment platform’s business booms January 29, 2025 AJ Bell saw assets under administration jump to £89.5bn by the end of 2024, as customers on the do-it-yourself investment platform surged twenty per cent throughout the year. The trading platform’s assets under administration jumped 17 per cent throughout last year, and three per cent in the last quarter, it said in a trading update [...]
Year of the Snake: China faces ‘short term pain for long term gain’ January 29, 2025 As China welcomes in the new year today, markets are hopeful that the government’s strategy of ‘short term pain for long term gain’ is enough to push the Chinese economy to a new stage of development. In traditional Chinese culture, the Year of the Snake embodies qualities of introspection, transformation and adaptability. That year seems fitting for 2025, as [...]
Why the crypto bull market party might be over for Britain January 28, 2025 While crypto markets have dipped in recent days after the release of Deepseek shook US tech firms, UK companies are struggling to keep the momentum of digital finance going. Bitcoin managed to pull itself back above the $100,000 mark this morning after Deepseek’s new AI model shook the stock prices of the Magnificent Seven; Apple, [...]
HSBC set to wind down UK, European and US investment banking arms January 28, 2025 HSBC is set to wind down parts of its investment banking operations across the UK, Europe and North America as part of a sweeping global restructuring plan under new chief executive Georges Elhedery. The move comes after Europe’s biggest lender revealed plans to make $3bn (£2.4bn) of cost savings last year and reorganise into four [...]
UK dividends fall in 2024 after miners cut payouts January 28, 2025 UK dividends fell 0.4 per cent on an underlying basis in 2024 after miners slashed payouts by 40 per cent compared to the previous year. While headline dividends in 2024 rose 2.3 per cent to £92.1bn, this was thanks to a surge in one-off payments to £5.6bn. Underlying or regular dividends fell to £86.5bn, thanks [...]
