Standard Chartered profits surge as loan-loss provisions fall sharply August 3, 2021 Standard Chartered posted a better-than-expected 57 per cent jump in first-half pre-tax profits as it followed fellow banking giants in releasing a wave of capital set aside in anticipation of a surge in Covid-related customer defaults. Pre-tax profit for Standard Chartered, which has a strong presence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, rose to [...]
Travis Perkins raises full year forecast as revenue soars August 3, 2021 Home improvement firm Travis Perkins raised its 2021 forecast today following a strong first-half, introducing a special dividend of 35 pence per share. Revenue for the business rose to £2.29bn in the six months ending June 2021, up from £1.66bn in the same period last year. The Northampton-based company increased their full year expectations to [...]
Moscow Metro introduces face recognition payment system August 3, 2021 The Tube has Oyster cards and the New York subway its Metrocards, but Moscow’s Metro is going one better – rolling out ticketing based on facial recognition technology. The Face Pay technology use biometric data and bank card details to recognise, and charge, travellers on the Metro. The tech is currently being trialled on the [...]
Virtual negotiations: COP26 should be an ‘immersive’ hybrid event August 3, 2021 The UN’s flagship climate conference, COP26, should be an ‘immersive’ hybrid event where some negotiations happen virtually, a former climate chief has said. Christiana Figueres, who spearheaded the 2015 Paris Agreement, said it was unlikely 25,000 people would attend the event in Glasgow as originally planned. Organisers must find the “sweet spot” that allows for [...]
Online shoppers help Joules return to profit with £122m e-commerce sales August 3, 2021 Joules has returned to profit after online sales contributed to full-year revenues climbing to almost £200m. The fashion and homeware retailer reported group revenue increased by 4.3 per cent to 199.million despite lockdowns forcing stores to shut for periods and cancellations of the brand’s country shows. Online sales were up by 48 per cent to [...]
Kick in the teeth: Gopher ‘highly disappointed’ as Playtech rebukes Finalto offer August 3, 2021 Gopher Investments this morning expressed extreme disappointment in the board of Playtech’s decision to reject its offer for Finalto and recommend a lower offer from a consortium of Israeli investors. Gopher, which owns a 4.97 per cent stake in online gaming and gambling software provider Playtech, said it was “highly disappointed” in the Playtech board’s [...]
Insurer Direct Line’s first-half profits rise as pandemic restrictions ease August 3, 2021 Insurer Direct Line has today reported a rise in its earnings for the first half of the year, despite a difficult car insurance market, which its home businesses offset. The company reported an operating profit of just under £370m for the six months ended June 30, an increase from £265m a year earlier. Direct Line [...]
SEC chief vows to crackdown on cryptocurrencies August 3, 2021 The new chief of the US’ financial markets watchdog has vowed to crackdown on cryptocurrencies as soon as possible. Speaking to Bloomberg, Gary Gensler, commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, said that he has instructed “staff to use all of our authorities anywhere we can” to improve oversight of crypto assets. Read more: [...]
China sets ‘buy Chinese’ targets for state companies against US trade deal August 3, 2021 The Chinese government has issued new procurement guidelines for state-owned companies and organisations that require up to 100 per cent local content on over 300 items, setting new obstacles for foreign suppliers. Document 551, titled “Auditing guidelines for government procurement of imported products”, was issued in May by the Chinese Ministry of Finance and the [...]
Mitigating litigation risk: The impact of corporate social performance factors August 3, 2021 Much has been written on the merits of ESG investing strategies and their ability to deliver comparable, if not superior, performance to traditional benchmarks. A majority of institutional investors are motivated to employ ESG investing strategies because they believe ESG will improve risk adjusted returns1, yet the circumstances in which ESG leads to better outcomes [...]
