Veterinary drugmaker Dechra shares fall as it shares plan for ‘hard’ Brexit September 3, 2018 Shares in FTSE 250 veterinary drugmaker Dechra Pharmaceuticals tumbled after the company announced it would be implementing preparation for a “hard” Brexit. The company announced today it would be moving ahead with plans including the transfer of product registrations to the EU, with a total cost of around £2m. Dechra says the “hard Brexit mitigation [...]
Taxpayers’ Alliance launches competition to find HS2 replacement September 3, 2018 Armchair transport ministers have been given their chance to shine by a new competition to devise an alternative to HS2, the planned high-speed railway. Pressure group the Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA), which advocates cutting public spending, has put out a call for ideas on how to spend the £50bn-plus designated for the planned route linking London, [...]
Former O2 boss in running for top role at BT September 2, 2018 The former boss of O2 is in the running to take replace Gavin Patterson at BT, the Sunday Telegraph reported. Ronan Dunne, who joined telecoms giant Verizon two years ago after more than a decade in senior roles at O2, had discussions with BT while spending time in Britain recently, sources told the paper. Dunne [...]
Danish billionaire to anchor £2bn float of p2p lender Funding Circle September 2, 2018 Billionaire Anders Povlsen – a stakeholder in fashion retailer Asos and City broken Numis – has agreed to anchor an up to £2bn floatation of the peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle. The Danish tycoon has agreed to buy a minimum 10 per cent of shareholding into Funding Circle during its floatation this autumn, when it plays [...]
Sky eyes Israel and Europe as it expands startup footprint September 2, 2018 Broadcaster Sky has announced plans to ramp up its startup investment and commercial partnership activity through a series of investments. The company will open a new office in Berlin to focus on companies in Germany and Scandinavia, and invest $4m (£3.1m) into Remagine Ventures, an Israeli venture capital fund based in Tel Aviv. Sky’s group [...]
Chinese online retail tycoon released after US sexual conduct charge September 2, 2018 The billionaire leader of a Chinese web retail giant was arrested in the US on Friday on a charge of criminal sexual conduct, before being released a day later. Richard Liu, the founder of JD.com – one of China’s biggest online retailers, and a major rival to web behemoth Alibaba – was taken into custody [...]
Rightmove faces FTSE 100 eviction as engineering firms climb, say analysts August 29, 2018 Online estate agent Rightmove is the top contender to drop from the FTSE 100 during its reshuffle next week, analysts have predicted. A weak housing market in London and the south-east, and tough competition for rivals such as Zoopla and PurpleBricks could see the company dropped into the FTSE 250, despite year-on-year growth in revenue [...]
Austrian steel firm shifts production to Mexico to dodge Trump tariffs August 29, 2018 Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine has defied US President Donald Trump by announcing it will shift part of its automotive production line from the US to Mexico to avoid a threatened tariff on imported steel. The firm, which specialises in making finished parts for the rail and automotive industries, has sales of €1.3bn (£1.18bn) in the US, [...]
Frustrated French energy minister quits during live radio interview August 28, 2018 Nicolas Hulot, France’s energy and environment minister, resigned suddenly this morning, saying in a radio broadcast that President Emmanuel Macron’s administration had frustrated his environmentalist efforts. The green activist and TV presenter, a vocal critic of nuclear power, said “I don’t want to lie anymore,” during a live interview public radio channel France Inter, adding [...]
GAM Holding sets out plan to pay back investors amid £5.8bn fund crisis August 28, 2018 GAM Holding, the embattled Swiss asset manager, will begin next month to liquidate funds that had been frozen after it suspended the investment director who ran them, the group said today. The asset manager announced earlier this month that it would liquidate nine funds, representing total assets worth SFr7.33bn (£5.82bn). Shares in GAM tumbled last [...]