Santander invests £1.8m in London restaurant chain Rosa’s Thai cafe January 26, 2016 Santander has invested £1.8m into London restaurant chain Rosa's Thai cafe, to help it expand in the capital. The investment, including an £800,000 Growth Capital loan, will fund the opening of three new restaurants in 2016, first in Victoria, and then Brixton and Shoreditch. The company hopes the new restaurants will create 100 jobs over the next two [...]
Purplebricks, the Neil Woodford-backed property company, sees its revenues and profits soar up 814 per cent January 26, 2016 Purplebricks, the hybrid online estate agent which floated on AIM in December, has announced interim results for the six months ending October this morning. The figures Gross profits rocketed up 814 per cent, to £4.1m from £400,000 the year. Revenues were up to £7.2m, from £800,000 his time the year before, a 777 per cent increase. Despite [...]
HSBC to leave the Council of Mortgage Lenders by the end of 2016 as financial industry trade bodies get set to merge and Barclays could follow January 26, 2016 HSBC is to quit the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), the trade body representing mortgage lenders, as it decides whether to remain headquartered in the UK. The bank has handed in its notice that it intends to leave the CML at the end of December, after the requisite one year notice period. This comes after a plans were unveiled [...]
CMC announces the price range for its February IPO, giving it a market capitalisation of more than £730m January 26, 2016 Spread-betting company CMC Markets has announced it is looking at a price range of between 235p and 275p when it floats on the London Stock Exchange in February. At the midpoint of the range, the company would have a market capitalisation of £736m, and is offering 90.4m ordinary shares, representing 31 per cent of the company's [...]
Dixons Carphone share price falls despite beating expectations for Christmas, as its warns on full year currency impact January 26, 2016 Dixons Carphone announced a five per cent increase in group sales over the Christmas period this morning, beating expectations. Like for like sales in the UK and Ireland were up five per cent for the 10 weeks ending 9 January. This beat consensus expectations of a four per cent rise. Last year the group's UK sales [...]
Neil Woodford-backed RateSetter reaches the £1bn borrowed mark January 25, 2016 Ratesetter, the Neil Woodford-backed fintech company, has become the fastest UK lending marketplace to lend over £1bn, reaching the milestone in 1,933 days, or just over five years. The £1bn was raised through 207,000 loans, the majority – 59 per cent – of which went to individuals, although property developers also make up a sizeable minority of the [...]
Funds under management reach a record high of £871 billion despite the commodity rout and uncertainty over China’s economy January 25, 2016 Funds under management reached a record £871bn in 2015, up from £835bn the year before, according to the latest data from the Investment Association, the investment managers trade body. Equities were the best-selling asset class for the second consecutive year, with sales to retail investors of £8.4bn. UK equities did particularly well, with net retail sales worth £4.3bn. Property was the [...]
Bosses beware: employees could cost you £2,000 by time wasting on Snapchat and Whatsapp January 25, 2016 It's every boss' worst fears come true: the average UK worker costs a company £2,149 a year through time-wasting. Six weeks is how long it takes for new employees to stop trying to impress and let their behaviour slip, according to job site reed.co.uk. Once they're settled into a new job workers spend an average of 33 [...]
Surprise! Beer campaign group says drinking beer makes you happier January 25, 2016 Going to the pub makes you happier, this according to a new study by Oxford University – which was carried out for… The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra). People who regularly go to their local are significantly happier, more trusting, have more friends and a better quality of life, according to the study: People who said [...]
Electra Private Equity forced to shake up its strategy now activist investor Edward Bramson is on the board January 25, 2016 The board of Electra Private Equity has announced it is reviewing its investment strategy just a few months after activist investor Edward Bramson joined the board. Bramson was finally voted on to the Electra board in November with 53.5 per cent of shareholders voting in favour, along with Ian Brindle, former PwC boss and a [...]
