Morrisons revenue tops £9bn, painting picture of health for bidders September 9, 2021 Morrisons has topped a revenue of £9bn in the past six months, as the bidding battle over the supermarket giant escalates. The retailer enjoyed a revenue lift of 3.7 per cent, including its fuel earnings, in its interim results for the six months to 1 August, painting a picture of health for potential buyers. The [...]
Costa Coffee lifts wages by 5 per cent amid staff shortages – CityAM : CityAM September 9, 2021 Costa Coffee has boosted pay by 5 per cent and announced 2000 job vacancies as staff shortages hit the hospitality sector. From October 01, the company’s 14,500-strong staff will be given a pay uplift as the company prepares for a busy festive season. Fully trained baristas will see their pay go up by 64p per [...]
Facebook’s $400m acquisition of Giphy could be blocked based on fruitless antitrust claims – CityAM : CityAM September 9, 2021 The Competition and Markets Authority have threatened to dissolve Facebook’s £289m acquisition of Giphy based on fruitless allegations the merger would be anti-competitive. The only catch is: Facebook and Giphy are not competitors. Breaking up this deal on antitrust grounds will have international consequences. Regulators across the world are becoming increasingly hostile towards Facebook, as [...]
EY to spend $2bn on improving audits after Wirecard scandal September 9, 2021 EY will invest around $2bn (£1.4bn) over three years to improve the quality of its audits after the high-profile collapse of payments company Wirecard, according to the Financial Times who first reported the news. The funding is part of a larger, and record, $10bn investment plan, announced by EY yesterday, to finance staff training and [...]
France says ‘non’ to Patel plan to turn back migrants in Channel September 9, 2021 France has refused to accept Priti Patel’s plan to send boats of migrants back across the English Channel. France’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted this morning that he will not “accept any practice contrary to the law of the sea nor any financial blackmail”, after Patel threatened to withhold millions of pounds she previously promised [...]
Number of workers on furlough tumbles to lowest level since start of pandemic September 9, 2021 The number of workers on furlough has tumbled to its lowest since the onset of the Covid crisis, according to official figures published today. Data from the Treasury shows there were 1.6m people on furlough at the end of July, down 340,000 from almost two million in the previous month. However, the rate at which [...]
Three is the latest mobile network to reintroduce EU roaming charges September 9, 2021 Three has become the third mobile network following Brexit to reintroduce roaming fees when travelling abroad of £2 daily. The firm follows rivals EE and Vodafone which recently announced the return of £2 daily charges, while O2 has kept free roaming so long as it is deemed “fair use”. The move is a particular defeat for Three [...]
KPMG wants nearly a third of staff to be from working class backgrounds September 9, 2021 In a first for a large business in Britain, KPMG has set a target for 29 per cent of its UK partners and directors to come from a working class background by 2030, the company said in an announcement today. Currently less than a quarter of KPMG’s partners, and a fifth of its directors, are [...]
Alibaba-backed LinkDoc mulls private $200m fundraiser after frozen US IPO September 9, 2021 Chinese medical data firm LinkDoc Technology is reportedly looking to raise between $200m and $300m from a private fundraiser, weeks after it froze plans for a US float. LinkDoc, which is backed by Alibaba Health Information Technology, is also mulling a fresh initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong instead of across the pond, Bloomberg [...]
City watchdog launches crackdown on inactive firms September 9, 2021 The City watchdog has launched new powers that will allow it to crackdown on inactive financial services firms quicker, it announced today. A sweeping set of reforms will allow the Financial Conduct Authority to cut the amount of time it needs to wait to revoke regulated firms’ permission to carry out regulated activities. The measures [...]
