US retail sales smash expectations in August September 16, 2021 US retail sales smashed expectations last month, boosting confidence in the American economy’s recovery from the Covid crisis even amid a surge in cases driven by the Delta variant. Retail sales jumped 0.7 per cent in August, up sharply from 1.8 per cent in the previous month, according to fresh figures published by the US [...]
Ex-Goldman Sachs Dogecoin millionaire joins UK healthcare company September 16, 2021 A Goldman Sachs manager who quit after making millions from the meme-based, crypto currency Dogecoin has reemerged as the Executive Chairman of a UK healthcare company. Aziz McMahon will join SpectrumX as Executive Chairman, focussing on investor relations, corporate governance, and the formulation of the company’s new ESG policy. McMahon was formerly the head of [...]
Brexit: EU finance lobby calls for extension to UK clearing house access : CityAM September 16, 2021 A trio of major lobby groups for Europe’s financial services sector have called on Brussels to extend the EU’s access to London clearing houses amid warnings of financial instability. The groups wrote to the European Commission today, warning “there is a significant risk of market disruption for EU clearing members and their clients” if the [...]
Polychain Capital leads $230m investment round in Avalanche – CityAM : CityAM September 16, 2021 Polychain and Three Arrows Capital have led a $230m investment round in the Avalanche network, buying up the company’s native crypto currency AVAX. R/Crypto Fund, Dragonfly and CMS Holdings were also among investors who bet big on Avalanche, an ultra fast, eco-friendly blockchain protocol which supports a growing ecosystem of DeFi projects. Proceeds from the sale [...]
Aviva makes £320m bulk annuity deal with pension fund September 16, 2021 Aviva has today announced the completion of a bulk purchase annuity deal, worth £320m, with the John Laing Pension Fund. John Laing, a manager of infrastructure projects, is an active investor in large transport, social and environmental infrastructure projects and renewable energy projects globally. The transaction marks the second buy-in between the two firms after the [...]
Rio Tinto ‘will dispute’ £190m fine from Australian tax watchdog September 16, 2021 Rio Tinto has been issued with a £186.36m fine from Australian authorities, according to a regulatory filing today, which the mining giant said it “will dispute”. The fine, dished out by the Australian Taxation Office, was for denying interest deductions on an isolated borrowing that was used to pay an internal dividend back in 2015. [...]
Wickes instates first-ever dividend following Travis Perkins demerger September 16, 2021 Revenue at Wickes has grown steadily on pre-pandemic levels, pushing the home improvement store chain to instate its first ever interim dividend. The Watford-headquartered group posted revenue growth of 22.4 per cent on 2019 levels, and 33.1 per cent on a like for like basis, in its interim results for the six months to 26 [...]
London’s Keystone Law boss eyes ‘busy market’ and post-pandemic recruitment September 16, 2021 London-headquartered Keystone Law has declared an interim dividend this morning, following six months of revenue growth and zero debt. The challenger law firm posted a revenue of £33.7m for the six months to 31 July, up more than 37 per cent in comparison to the first half of last year. As a result, Keystone has [...]
BT to hire 1,000 staff outside of London as part of ‘levelling up agenda’ September 16, 2021 BT is set to hire around 1,000 new staff to fill the broadband giant’s flagship Birmingham office, its first major site outside of London. There are currently some 225 positions available, which will grow over the coming months and years, BT said in a statement. The FTSE 100 has been slowly introducing its workforce back [...]
Piers Morgan set to join new Murdoch-backed TV channel September 16, 2021 Piers Morgan will join News Corp and Fox News Media for the launch of its new channel early next year after signing a global deal, according to reports. The new channel, touted as a “global TV show”, will air in the UK, the US and Australia on weeknights and cover a wide range of genres, [...]
