Bottom Line: Investors are right to shrug off price tag February 20, 2014 FACEBOOK’S $19bn (£11.4bn) payment for instant messaging service Whatsapp knocked many market watchers sideways. Those numbers see the start-up of just 55 employees valued at more than American Airlines or Ralph Lauren. But Zuckerberg isn’t here for Whatsapp’s profitability – it charges users 99 cents just once a year – he wants its market share. [...]
Nationwide seizes market share February 20, 2014 THE NATIONWIDE is grabbing more current account and mortgage customers from the big four banks, the building society revealed yesterday. The growth pushed up profits as the lender’s interest margins improved. Nationwide made £21.6bn of mortgage loans in the nine months to December, up 34 per cent on the year. The growth is faster than that in [...]
Desmond sets a deadline for Channel 5 bids February 20, 2014 RICHARD Desmond has stepped down from the board of Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited in a sign that the media boss may be preparing for a sale of the broadcaster. An information memorandum has been sent to would-be buyers and City A.M. understands that a deadline of 27 February has been set for initial offers. Last [...]
Expansion brings sterling year for Moneycorp February 20, 2014 FAST growing foreign exchange firm Moneycorp grew gross profits by nearly 50 per cent last year – underscoring its ambitious plans to crack high street banks’ dominance of the overseas payments market. The Knightsbridge-based firm, which is controlled by a former investment vehicle of RBS, said gross profit rose to £97.2m from £65.2m in 2012 [...]
Swiss Re replaces finance boss February 20, 2014 REINSURANCE giant Swiss Re has exceeded analyst expectations and posted strong results for 2013. The group yesterday reported a 34 per cent increase in net profit in the fourth quarter of the year to $1.2bn (£720m), up from $795m in the previous year. Alongside its results, Swiss Re also announced the appointment of its new [...]
Everything you wanted to know about Whatsapp February 20, 2014 SO, FACEBOOK opened the giant gates to its social coffers again – this time forking out $19bn for Whatsapp – making it its most expensive shopping trip ever. Zuckerberg and his desire to control all inter-friend communication aside, the founders of five-year-old Whatsapp, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, have just become the Valley’s newest billionaires. Here’s [...]
Ex-City girl is boxing clever February 20, 2014 SHOREDITCH trend bazaar, Boxpark, saw the launch of ex-Goldman Sachs employee Gemma Bellman’s new venture last night. The former Sachser has developed an app called BeautySpotter, which claims to be the first mobile app for hair and beauty discovery. It allows users to browse nearby salons by looking at images of “looks” the salons have [...]
Rathbone boss leaves on a high as assets tick up February 20, 2014 WEALTH manager Rathbone Brothers ushered in a new era yesterday after long standing boss Andy Pomfret handed the reins over to the company’s new chief executive, as it reported double digit asset growth for last year. Pomfret, who has been an executive at the company for 15 years, leaves the business next Friday to be [...]
Foreign tourists spend £11.45bn in London February 20, 2014 LONDON makes up more than half of inbound tourist spending, according to official figures released yesterday, rising to almost two thirds when including the south east of England. In 2011 inbound visitors from abroad splashed out £11.45bn in the capital out of £20.98bn across the UK as a whole, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) [...]
Nigeria central bank president is suspended February 20, 2014 THE PRESIDENT of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan yesterday suspended the governor of the country’s central bank Lamido Sanusi. Sanusi, who was due to end his term in June, alleged in the Financial Times last week that the shortfall in Nigeria’s crude oil earnings were due to gross mismanagement of the country’s oil wealth. Earlier this month, [...]
