Coronavirus death toll hits 2,000 as passengers leave Diamond Princess cruise ship February 19, 2020 Hundreds of passengers started to disembark the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship today as the coronavirus death toll moved past 2,000 in mainland China. While the death toll hit 2,004, China reported only 1,749 new cases of Covid-19 to bring the total to 74,000. The novel strain of coronavirus is believed to have emerged from [...]
UK firm tells staff to go meat-free to expense meals February 18, 2020 Employees of one property firm have decided that meat is firmly off the menu when it comes to expenses. For the 30 or so staff at Igloo Regeneration, they must now go vegetarian in order to expense not just lunches and dinners, but corporate entertaining and workshop catering too. Workers voted for the change after [...]
Pound rallies as UK employment hits record high and wages beat 2008 peak February 18, 2020 Wages beat their pre-financial crisis peak for the first time at the end of 2019, as the level of UK employment rose to a record high of 32.9m people. A total of 180,000 people entered the workforce between October and December 2019, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today. That took the number of [...]
HSBC: Profit plunges as bank plans 35,000 job cuts February 18, 2020 HSBC has outlined plans to offload $100bn (£77bn) of assets and dramatically downsize its investment banking arm in a restructure that will cost 35,000 jobs over the next three years. Profit before tax tumbled by a third to $13.6bn in 2019, HSBC said as it revealed its most radical overhaul since the financial crisis in [...]
14 Diamond Princess passengers evacuated to US test positive for coronavirus February 17, 2020 Fourteen US citizens evacuated from Japan’s quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship have been diagnosed with the Covid-19 strain of coronavirus. The Americans were flown to US military bases on two charter flights yesterday despite doctors making the discovery on passengers’ way to the airport. A total of 3,500 passengers have been marooned aboard the Diamond [...]
Jupiter Fund Management snaps up Merian for £370m February 17, 2020 Jupiter Fund Management today confirmed it has clinched a £370m deal to buy Merian Global Investors in what analysts have branded a “defensive” move. Jupiter will become the world’s second largest retail funds manager after the acquisition in a sector where rising regulatory pressures have encouraged actively managed funds to band together. “This is an [...]
Laura Ashley shares sink as £20m lifeline thrown into doubt February 17, 2020 Laura Ashley’s stock sank 41.54 per cent today after it warned its access to a £20m funding lifeline to keep it trading was in serious doubt. The retailer’s owner, Malaysian firm MUI Group, is now locked in discussions with lender Wells Fargo to secure enough cash to keep Laura Ashley trading. The asset-backed loan, agreed [...]
Japan’s economy shrinks at fastest rate in five years February 17, 2020 Japan and Singapore teetered on the brink of recession today after a poor end to 2019 was compounded by the coronavirus threat to the countries’ tourism industries and supply chains. Japan’s economy shrank at its fastest rate in five years at the end of 2019, it was revealed today. GDP fell 6.3 per cent in [...]
Monzo plans to relaunch paid-for accounts and hire another 500 staff February 17, 2020 British fintech darling Monzo plans to recruit another 500 people as it targets 5.5m users this year and bids again to turn those numbers into a profit. Monzo, which is valued at around £2bn, is set to relaunch paid-for accounts in the first quarter of 2020 after a failed introduction last year, when it reversed [...]
RBS to rebrand as Natwest as bank posts £4.2bn profit under new boss Alison Rose February 14, 2020 Royal Bank of Scotland reported profit of £4.2bn for 2019 today, beating its financial targets as new boss Alison Rose outlined a rebrand of the bank to its Natwest name. But RBS’s share price sank 6.4 per cent to lead the FTSE 100 fallers today. Traders reacted badly to a cautious outlook on growth amid [...]
