Sants set to take on payday lending firms May 27, 2014 FORMER British investment banker Hector Sants is leading a task force set up by the Church of England as part of a campaign against payday lenders. Together with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sants launched the network of churches, communities and credit unions yesterday.
South African economy hit by miners’ strikes May 27, 2014 SOUTH Africa’s economy has contracted for the first time in five years, after a platinum miners’ strike crippled production, new statistics showed yesterday. GDP decreased by 0.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2014, with the main contributor being a 24.7 per cent year-on-year decline in activity in the mining and quarrying industry, according [...]
Twitter to soar to 400m users by 2018 due to rapid growth in Asia May 27, 2014 TWITTER, which has seen its share price collapse over 50 per cent since January due to fears surrounding its slowing user growth, could unlock explosive user growth in Asia by the end of the year, according to a report. While the number of Twitter users in the US is expected to grow by just 12 [...]
Investor attacks Petroceltic’s governance on share placing May 27, 2014 A MAJOR shareholder in Irish oil and gas explorer Petroceltic yesterday urged other investors to vote against the removal of pre-emption rights on a proposed $100m (£59.5m) placing, criticising the firm’s corporate governance and choice of a new investor. Worldview Capital Management, an investment firm that holds a 17 per cent stake in Petroceltic, is [...]
Advisers split with firms over recent UK floats May 27, 2014 SMALL and medium-sized listed firms are split with their advisers on whether the recent jump in flotation activity will be good for their ability to raise funds. A survey released today by the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) and BDO points to a major schism between firms and their advisers on the effect of recent flotations. [...]
Brand Index: Google could gobble up big slice of comparison market May 27, 2014 WITH Google making tentative steps into the price comparison market, the sector could well undergo a shake-up over the coming year. Using YouGov’s BrandIndex tool, I have assessed the main players in the market currently – Gocompare, Comparethemarket and MoneySupermarket. So competitive is the sector that the brands rely on high-profile advertising campaigns to make [...]
Tube traffic rises by a third in a decade to nearly 1.3bn journeys May 27, 2014 IF THE Tube carriage feels a bit more crowded than it used to be, it’s no wonder: the London Underground carried passengers on a whopping 1.265bn journeys in the last financial year, meaning the Tube is now taking a third more passengers than it was a decade ago. Compared to the previous year, journey numbers [...]
Tax crackdown boosts revenue to record level May 27, 2014 HER MAJESTY’S Revenue and Customs (HMRC) netted £23.9bn in additional revenues last year, with the tax authorities saying that the boost to their coffers comes from more stringent investigations. Revenue from this source is now at its highest level on record. The department says its income from investigations has risen by £3.2bn from the previous [...]
Spotify becomes latest tech firm to be hit by data security breach May 27, 2014 MUSIC streaming service Spotify has become the latest technology firm to be hit by a breach of user’s personal data. Although only small in scale, the incident warranted a statement on the company’s website from chief technology officer Oskar Stal yesterday. In the statement Stal wrote: “We’ve become aware of some unauthorised access to our systems [...]
Euronext to list on its markets as ICE gets out May 27, 2014 EURONEXT is to list shares on four of its own stock exchanges across Europe as it becomes an independent company, its American owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) said yesterday. The firm will float on the Euronext markets in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels in the next few months, before listing shares in Lisbon later in the year. [...]
