RSM elects new chief executive as Grant Thornton cuts wages April 21, 2020 Challenger accountancy firm RSM last night elected a new chief executive after a marathon virtual general meeting while rival Grant Thornton slashed wages to help survive the coronavirus crisis. RSM announced last night shortly before midnight that former corporate finance head Rob Donaldson had claimed the top job. The Telegraph reported that Donaldson saw off [...]
Applications worth £1.5bn now made to coronavirus job retention scheme April 21, 2020 A further 45,000 businesses and 300,000 employees have registered for the government’s wage subsidy scheme, according to the Treasury. A Treasury spokesman said today that 185,000 businesses with 1.3m employees had applied for the job retention scheme as of midnight last night. The total amount this covers would be £1.5bn, however the spokesman said that [...]
Italy to relax lockdown restrictions from early May April 21, 2020 Italy will this week outline plans to lift its coronavirus lockdown, with some restrictions expected to be eased from 4 May. The country, which has been one of the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, has been under lockdown since 9 March. Italy’s lockdown has seen most businesses close and people only allowed out of [...]
Downing Street stands by 100,000 daily coronavirus tests target April 21, 2020 Downing Street has stood by its target of administering 100,000 coronavirus tests per day by the end of the month, despite having capacity to carry out less than half of that. With just nine days left in the month, there is testing capacity to carry out just 39,250 tests a day. Just 19,316 tests were [...]
Richard Branson hits out as Virgin Australia goes into administration April 21, 2020 Billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson has hit out at the Australian government after low-cost airline Virgin Australia went into administration this morning. In an open letter, Branson, whose Virgin group owns 10 per cent of the airline, wrote: “In most countries federal governments have stepped in, in this unprecedented crisis for aviation, to help their [...]
Pound tumbles as oil chaos drives investors towards dollar April 21, 2020 The pound has tumbled to a two-week low against the dollar as turmoil in the oil markets spooks investors and sends them towards safe-haven assets such as the greenback. Sterling had fallen 1.1 per cent by midday to $1.23. It was last at this level roughly 12 days ago. Investors around the world sold off [...]
More than £6bn of coronavirus grants given to English businesses April 21, 2020 More than £6bn of business grants have been distributed to English small and medium sized businesses through the government’s coronavirus grant schemes. A total of 491,725 grants, worth £6.11bn, have been distributed out of a pot of £12.3bn as of last night, translating into a 49.58 per cent delivery rate. Grants of £10,000 are available to [...]
Coronavirus: Oktoberfest cancelled due to pandemic April 21, 2020 Oktoberfest has been cancelled due to fears about the coronavirus outbreak, organisers confirmed today. The historic knees-up is the largest beer festival in the world, attracting roughly 6m visitors to Munich each year. But in a joint statement Bavaria’s minister president Markus Soeder and Munich’s lord mayor Dieter Reiter said the festival would not go [...]
Cath Kidston closes all stores as part of rescue deal April 21, 2020 Cath Kidston will permanently close all 60 of its stores in the UK under a rescue deal with its Hong Kong-based owner Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA). The fashion label confirmed that parts of its business had been transferred by administrators following an independent sale process to CK Acquisitions, a company owned by BPEA. Under [...]
Coronavirus: UK spooks block 2,000 scams in Covid-19 cyber campaign April 21, 2020 British spy chiefs have taken down more than 2,000 online scams linked to coronavirus in the last month as they crack down on cyber criminals trying to exploit the health crisis. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it had closed down 471 fake online shops selling fraudulent virus-related items, as well as 555 malware [...]
