Asian stocks climb after Wall Street rally August 24, 2020 Asian stocks started the week in positive territory this morning after an announcement from the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) raised hopes of a coronavirus vaccine. The FDA last night said it had authorised the use of blood plasma from recovered patients as a possible treatment for the virus. The announcement came on the [...]
Coronavirus crisis: How far will the UK economy fall in 2020? August 24, 2020 HSBC last week became the latest big institution to downgrade its forecasts for the UK economy and disagree strongly with the Bank of England’s rosy expectations. It said the historic 20.4 per cent slump in GDP in the second quarter “was worse than we had expected”. The lender said it was therefore now “more pessimistic” [...]
Exclusive: Consumer goods firm Ultimate Products to repay furlough scheme wages August 24, 2020 Consumer goods firm Ultimate Products will repay all the money that it has claimed through the government’s job retention furlough scheme after outperforming expectations despite the coronavirus pandemic. City A.M. can reveal that the London-listed firm is set to give back the £465,237 it was given to keep staff on over the lockdown period, and [...]
By ignoring the Civil War in Libya, the EU risks its stability August 24, 2020 The art of statecraft consists in large part of separating risks which cannot be tolerated from those which have to be lived with. This key political realist imperative is all but lost on the European Union. While EU leaders are focused on Belarus, which will remain close to regional power Russia whatever the outcome of [...]
The Wirecard scandal is a warning to the EU to think twice before cutting itself off from London’s financial expertise August 24, 2020 “The last place we expected something like this to happen was Germany,” said Peter Altmaier, the German economy minister in the wake of the Wirecard fiasco. But is it really? City A.M. readers will likely now be fully familiar with the Wirecard debacle. But for those who are not, here is a potted history. Since [...]
The City’s partnerships abroad will help drive the Covid recovery — whatever its shape August 24, 2020 There has been much debate in recent weeks as to what the Covid-19 recovery will look like. But whether the shape is V, U, W, or even a “Nike swoosh”, one thing that will be integral to any economic rebound is international trade. In normal circumstances, I would visit over 20 countries during the year [...]
Global dividends plunge to record quarterly low August 24, 2020 Global dividends plunged by a fifth to $108.1bn in the second quarter, with payouts in the UK and Europe the worst affected. As companies scrambled to conserve cash as coronavirus cases increased, payouts fell 19.3 per cent on an underlying basis to $382.2bn, according to Janus Henderson’s global dividend index. It is the worst quarterly [...]
The City View: Moneypenny CEO on why it’s time to come out of hiding and find some confidence August 24, 2020 In this episode Christian talks to Joanna Swash, chief executive of the customer services and office support provider Moneypenny, which has 20,000 corporate clients in the UK and US. Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS Joanna talks about the impact of the early stages of lockdown on her company and explains how she transitioned 1,000 [...]
High demand for prime property leads market rebound August 24, 2020 High demand for so-called prime property has led the UK housing market’s post-lockdown rebound, new data from estate agents Knight Frank revealed today. Since markets reopened in mid-May, the UK market has surged back at a surprisingly swift pace due to the release of a tide of pent-up demand. According to the research, the biggest [...]
Four-fifths of Londoners want to get back to the office August 23, 2020 More than four-fifths of Londoners want to get back to working from the office, the highest such proportion in the UK, City A.M. can reveal. According to new statistics from IT provider Atlas Cloud, residents of the capital are the keenest in the country to get back to office life, above an average of 74 [...]
