FirstGroup offload three US properties in £100m deal December 31, 2020 Transport outfit FirstGroup have offloaded three properties used by its US bus group, Greyhound, in deals worth £102m. The Aberdeen-based firm confirmed the deal to the stock market this morning. The biggest of the three deals is an agreement to sell Greyhound’s Los Angeles terminal to a subsidiary of property firm Prologis for $88m (£65m). [...]
Sold: Connells pick up estate agent Countrywide after protracted takeover battle December 31, 2020 Embattled estate agent Countrywide has been taken over by rivals Connells after a protracted and public takeover battle. Connells, which owns Barnard Marcus and a host of other real estate brands, has been in talks since early November. Read more: Retail wonks hope for a brighter 2021 It sealed the deal upping its offer to [...]
Where we are in terms of political risk in 2021 December 31, 2020 Happy New Year to City A.M. readers! Writing a regular newspaper column is a lot like dancing: it takes two to tango. Suffice it to say, while I’ve kept the flame alive these past enervating lockdown months via ceaseless articles detailing the bottomless gloom of 2020, I’m delighted that 2021 may generally bring more positive [...]
When will our lives begin? What I learned from 2020 — and from Disney’s Tangled December 31, 2020 Like so many people tasked with entertaining children over Christmas, I have spent the last week watching an inordinate amount of Disney. That is to be expected. What I did not expect was finding the ultimate lockdown song. I am talking of the opening number from Tangled, the 2010 version of Rapunzel, entitled “When will [...]
Three quarters of small businesses set to hire next year as vaccine boosts confidence December 31, 2020 Small businesses are looking forward to hiring further staff in 2021 as the vaccine rollout boosts confidence for the year ahead. Some 77 per cent of businesses plan to increase their workforce, with four in ten aiming to do so as early as Q1. The research, conducted by Starling Bank and the Great British Entrepreneur [...]
Software startup Ondato moves to London in post-Brexit boost December 31, 2020 Software startup Ondato is establishing new headquarters in London, marking a show of confidence in the UK’s booming tech scene after Brexit. Ondato, which operates biometric authentication software, said it was “undeterred” by the UK’s departure from the EU and would use its new base in Canary Wharf to drive further expansion in Europe. The [...]
UK parliament passes post-Brexit trade deal in one day December 30, 2020 Both houses of the UK parliament have passed Boris Johnson’s Brexit trade deal, just 13 hours after it was introduced in the House of Commons. The deal was voted through by the House of Lords just after 11.30 pm, after MPs passed the legislation by 521 votes to 73 earlier this afternoon. The deal will [...]
Covid: Another 981 UK deaths in biggest daily toll for eight months December 30, 2020 Almost 1,000 people died in the UK from Covid yesterday in what is the largest one-day total since the first peak of the virus. The government’s latest figures show that 981 people died on Tuesday, which takes the total to 72,548. The number was a large jump from the previous day, with a likely backlog [...]
Most of England now in a Tier 4 lockdown after Covid cases hit record high December 30, 2020 Around three-quarters of England is now in lockdown, after areas like Greater Manchester, the entire North East and Birmingham were placed in Tier 4 by the government today. A statement from the Department of Health also said that “almost all remaining areas” have been escalated into Tier 3 including Liverpool, York and North Yorkshire and Cornwall. [...]
Loungewear sales up 1,303 per cent as lockdown changes consumer habits December 30, 2020 Loungewear and leggings sales spiked by 1,303 per cent in 2020 according to new data from John Lewis. The department store’s annual look at consumer habits shows lockdown’s impact on customers’ baskets. As well as sitting room fashion, sales of chess sets (a 121 per cent increase on 2019), TVs (45 per cent) and paint [...]
