J&J pulls in $2.5bn from Covid-19 jabs alone, but slips below Wall Street forecasts October 19, 2021 Johnson & Johnson quarterly revenue slipped below Wall Street forecasts in its latest trading update, though the business giant turned Covid-19 vaccine maker pulled in $2.5bn from its jab sales. The vaccine sales figure comes despite a string of production setbacks, including quality issues at one of its single-dose vaccine manufacturing facilities – which saw [...]
Government’s new boiler strategy to cover just one in 250 households, says Miliband October 19, 2021 Shadow business secretary Ed Miliband has called the government’s new boiler upgrade strategy a “meagre, unambitious and wholly inadequate response,” alongside several environmental campaign groups. Taking to Twitter, Miliband criticised that the Conservative’s government’s plan would only cover one in every 250 households currently on the gas grid, as the UK seeks to replace gas [...]
Exclusive: NatWest-backed Updraft raises £72m in latest funding round October 19, 2021 NatWest-backed Updraft, an app which aims to help people get out of debt, has raised £72m in its latest funding round as it eyes expansion. The fintech firm, which is looking to lend £200m to UK customers next year, allows customers to connect their bank accounts and view their debts from across credit cards and [...]
Scientists behind AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine start developing Delta-specific jab October 19, 2021 A new version of the Oxford vaccine is reportedly being developed to specifically target the Covid-19 Delta strain. The team of scientists behind the AstraZeneca/Oxford jab, led by Professor Sarah Gilbert, has begun early work on the new vaccine with the goal of “having something on the shelf ready to scale up – if it’s [...]
City Moves: Who’s switching jobs in the Square Mile today? October 19, 2021 City A.M.’s Millie Turner provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every morning. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. Azets Accountancy and business advisory services Azets has promoted Naomi Wells to Tax Partner. After joining the firm in 2015, Wells has been promoted several times, including to Associate Director in January. The appointment is one of [...]
Foreign investors pile into London’s green dream, making it the ‘cleantech’ capital of Europe October 19, 2021 London was the leading city in Europe for ‘cleantech’ projects last year, with investors piling into the cause as the UK chases its net zero target and maps its ‘levelling up’ agenda. The UK snagged one in six of all foreign direct investment that came in behind cleantech last year, according to Big Four firm [...]
Caffé Nero to expand coffee shop network as it nears pre-Covid sales October 18, 2021 Caffe Nero is set to expand its network of coffee shops with “dozens” of new stores over the next year, as its sales climb towards pre-pandemic levels. The café chain has been making headway with its post-Covid-19 recovery, hailing it being cash positive for the past 11 months in its latest trading update. Nero sales [...]
Gupta’s GFG files High Court claim against AIP amid French smelter row October 18, 2021 Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance has filed a claim against American Industrial Partners (AIP) with the High Court amid a row over an aluminium smelter in France. A GFG spokesperson said: “GFG’s opinion is that AIP has unlawfully expropriated the valuable aluminium smelter, located in Dunkerque, France, belonging to GFG’s ALVANCE Aluminium business. “Despite GFG providing [...]
Bad news Nigel: Traditionalist names of City grandees slide down the baby-name ranks October 18, 2021 Baby names are increasingly being shaped by pop culture, according to the latest data, which has shown more traditional names to slide down the ranks, but win favour with mothers over 35. It marks a fading out of City grandee names like Emma Walmsley, who’s first name was ranked 60th most popular, Martin Gilbert who came [...]
Government ordered to reveal firms in £12bn PPE bonanza ‘VIP lane’ October 18, 2021 The government has been ordered to reveal the list of 47 companies which were awarded hefty PPE contracts via the ‘high-priority lane’ at the beginning of the pandemic last year. The contracts cost the government some £12.5bn, despite a number of reports that some of the PPE acquired was ‘unusable’. The Information Commissioner has told [...]