Pension funds question investor acceptance of remuneration committees January 18, 2017 Investors are being urged to up their game in the debate over executive pay by taking a tougher stance on the committees that sign-off remuneration policy. The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), which represents over 1,300 pension schemes and representing £1 trillion in assets, today revealed new guidelines on corporate governance policy. Read more: Aberdeen calls for [...]
Vodafone returns to Sweden with Tele2 partnership to centralise services January 18, 2017 Vodafone today unveiled a new partnership with the Tele2 that will centralise services across Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania. Stockholm-listed Tele2 is a major player on the continent, operating across nine counties with over 14m customers. Read more: Vodafone beats expectations as it continues to monitor Brexit implications The partnership commenced on 1 January and Vodafone partner markets [...]
Game Digital shares drop after sales fall and cash burn January 18, 2017 Shares in Game Digital flopped over three per cent this morning after the firm revealed "tough" trading in the UK had hit sales. The figures Like many other retailers, Game focuses on its gross transactional value (GTV): effectively the value of sales before any discounts are applied. Reporting its half-year numbers to the end of December, Game [...]
Ladbrokes Coral’s shares are on the up as bad run of results fails to hamper annual performance January 18, 2017 Ladbroke Coral's share price jumped over three per cent this morning after revealing its results are on track to fall in line with expectations. The figures Operating profit is expected to be in the range of £275m-£285m. The formerly separate entity Coral contributed around £179m of this with the original Ladbrokes division generating £101m. The profits [...]
Provident Financial boss rebuffs Brexit doom-mongering January 17, 2017 The boss of sub prime lender Provident Financial said post-Brexit economic doom-mongering has been proven to be wrong and is quietly confident about what 2017 will bring. Peter Crook, the chief exec of the FTSE 100 firm, revealed there was plenty of room for the firm to grow, “serving customers in an underserved market”. Read [...]
The UK has shot up the corporate fraud rankings with an annual spike in incidences January 17, 2017 Fraud incidents have shot up at UK businesses during 2016, catapulting Britain towards the summit of global corporate fraud rankings. Over the last 12 months the proportion of British businesses saying they had been affected by fraud jumped from 74 per cent to 90 per cent. Read more: Rolls-Royce to pay £671m to settle corruption [...]
Insurers quietly optimistic over May’s Brexit plans but sector confidence plummets to six-year low January 17, 2017 The insurance sector welcomed the Prime Minister’s Brexit plan as “a step in the right direction” but warned confidence among firms was at its lowest level since 2011. Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposals of a “phased implementation” were welcomed by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), which believed it would lead to a greater degree of certainty [...]
Saga picks KPMG as its new auditor, replacing EY after a 10-year relationship January 17, 2017 Saga has ditched Ernst & Young (EY) as auditors in favour of KPMG, the company announced this morning. EY has been the FTSE 250 firm's group auditor since September 2014, having previously been appointed auditor across the Saga's principal trading subsidiaries in 2007. Read more: Over 50 per cent growth to Saga profits Under audit directives, listed [...]
Standard Chartered: Analysts say the bank is a wise place to invest in light of Brexit and Trump January 17, 2017 Shares in Standard Chartered leapt over six per cent this morning after market upgrades and traders saw the stock as a good hedge against the tumbling pound. Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) raised its expectations of StanChart's profit before tax by 18 per cent and raised its target price for the stock to 900p from 735p. [...]
